BootsnAll Travel Community

So what do people do when they travel for a long time and do not want to ask freinds and family for help. I will if I really have to but trying to not to.

So for storage there are public storage.

I figured out how to do my taxes next year from on the road.

So my question comes for all the postal mail we recieve. I have minimised all this by online statements etc but still recieve some. I don't want to forward my mail to my friends or family....What other reasonable option do I have.

I am using this service:
US Global Mail www.usglobalmail.com

The service I signed up for is $15 per month and lets me have mail forwarded to an unlimited number of addresses. There is an additional charge for the actual forwarding--I have always selected the cheapest option, I think it's Global Mail Priority, which is an additional $15.

Basically I have them pack up my mail and send it once a month. So far I've had mail sent to me twice, in Barcelona and Granada Spain, with no problems, although it did take the mail to Granada more than the 7-10 business days stated (which didn't really matter, but it's good to know there could be a delay).

Try googling "mail forwarding service." I seem to remember narrowing it down to three place, one of which would scan your mail and email it to you, if requested, so you could see if some stuff was worth bothering with before having it sent. I think think I ended up not using them because I couldn't use unlimited addresses, or I didn't like the pricing scheme, or something...otherwise it seemed like a good service.

familiesontheroad.com has a great section on exactly that - check it out at http://familiesontheroad.com/life/communication.html

How do you do your taxes on the road?

I will be working with my tax guy...i have 90% of my tax stuff 1099's etc on the interent. Will download them and send them via email. Basically i will send the info via an email. They will fill out all the forms and send them back to me. They actually have a spreadsheet that i will just fill out.

They have all my bank information on file..so they will file electronically.

I will start early (hopefully)

Since you guys are coming back every 3 months to the US you should be able to time that to come in Feb so that you can get your taxes done during that time.

Re. taxes on the road, if you can get access to a computer, you can also use Turbo Tax. It lets you file electronically on their website. That worked fine for me (refund was directly deposited into my US bank account). Of course you'll need to haul all your tax stuff with you or have someone send it to you.

The only thing you need to be aware of is that it will require something called an electronic signature. In order to prove that you are who you say you are, it will ask you to enter the amount on a line from last year's tax form. When I did this, it wouldn't accept that amount, even though I had the previous year's tax form sitting right in front of me and I knew it was correct. After some panicked searching on their help function, I found that this is not uncommon--and supposedly has something to do with whether or not you've ever filed that way before.

Anyway, all you have to do is print out a form (which is on the site), sign it, and send it in, so you'll want to make sure you can also get access to a printer at some point too. The good thing is, although technically your taxes are not considered "filed" until the form is received, you'll still get your refund just from the electronic filing, before they receive the paper with your signature on it.