How can I owe MORE taxes?

Well, we are one week away from the final payment to our oldest credit card. I was basically walking on air yesterday, having just got the news that the positions I've interviewed for are moving forward in the process. Yayyy!

Then, we checked the mail.

Stinky, old mail.

Looks like we forgot to include something on our taxes from 2010. We had won a small jackpot on one of our casino trips back then. It was $3,000! It was the first and last time that ever happened to us. We didn't get anything in the mail to trigger us to remember to include it on our taxes, so we forgot.

The government didn't forget. They were notified by the casino and are looking for their 25%. $750. Oh, plus $31 for interest. A whopping $781 due to the government. Shucks.

Looks like I could file an amended return and somehow write off equal amounts of gambling losses. That's if we itemized our deductions. We've never had enough deductions to do that, so we've always taken the standard one. I'm not even sure that if we did itemize it, if it would just be a wash or if it doesn't work like that.

Part of me just wants to pay the $781 and be done with this. But, another part of me says that I should try to pull out our old taxes and file an amended return with itemizing our deductions and hope that the number somehow decreases. I'm not sure it will though and I don't really want to spend the time on it.

The bill will be considered "closed and paid in full" if we pay the $781 by June 20th. We will have the money. Sure, it was earmarked for something else, but we can make it work.

Sometimes it's worth the money to just put something behind you, ya know? I haven't made a final decision but that's how this is feeling right now. We'll see.