Taxes, death, and instructions
Apr. 2nd, 2009 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helen99So I did taxes last night. And by "last night," I mean the whole night. I got maybe 5 minutes of sleep at around 6:30 and then got up. I had intended to spend several nights on it and actually give myself some time to gather all the pieces of paper I needed and put them together. Nope. Once I get started on something like that, it's not over till it's over. It was a Project.
I thought I'd gathered together all requisite paperwork, but I was missing two 1040-INT forms, two property tax statements, and the purchase price of a sold security. So I spent hours looking for them. I found all but one INT form which would have shown a negligible amount of interest. Locating the rest of them took going through all the year's papers and actually reading them to see what they were. I did locate them finally, sometime during the hours when many people are born or die. (OOoo. Sundance Kid by Kent is a great song! So's "The Golden Age" by Beck).
Anyway, after going through the statements and organizing them into chronologically consecutive notebooks, I was able to trace back the history of when the sold security first appeared on the statements, and then looked up on the net how much it cost around that month so I could subtract from the sale price to calculate the loss. I somehow still showed a cap gain though. Hence I downloaded the Instructions so I could see what I might have missed in the calculations. Nothing that I could see - still muddling through it. It would not have made an appreciable difference in the refund, so finally I just declared it "done" and e-filed. Edit - I heard from the bank (I couldn't resist inquiring about the "missing" 1040-INT). They said that account isn't interest-bearing. That would be why I couldn't find the 1040-INT form. D'oh.
So here I am at work. And by "Work" I mean listening to a band called "Rock Kills Kid" on Pandora which played right after a great one called "I am over it" by the Dandy Warhols which was quickly followed by New Order playing Slow Jam (etc.). I've created an eclectic Indie station that has so far been consistently good.
I'm reviewing the "Instructions" for the form 1040 to figure out if I did this thing correctly (the checker says I did - so at least I was internally consistent if nothing else). By "Instructions", I mean a 90-page document that purports to tell you how to fill out the "Simplified" tax return (HAHAHA!) I went through all of the possible rebates, deductions, and exemptions and found I qualified for very few of them. Even the Rebate eluded me, since I already received the Stimulus. We're still getting a good refund after State taxes, filing fees, and Turbotax (no, we couldn't free-file). It was pretty bizarre going down the wondrous list of things I thought I could qualify for but didn't. It was like, "There's this GREAT thing you can take advantage of, and by "You," I mean someone else." I'm officially wealthy.
Wealth doesn't buy everything though. As some may have noticed, it's April. One may recall how I feel about April, but if not, here's a review:
Dear April: My name is Inigo99 Montoya. You killed my father. And my mother. And my brother in law. And my youth. And, you most certainly killed last night. Prepare to die.
So ok. I really love April. The trees are just getting their first tiny leaves and flowers are blooming. Everything is being reborn. <----Sleep dep talking, really
Never Win by Fischerspooner and Mary Please by the Brian Jonestown Massacre are wonderful songs - remind me of springtime...
I thought I'd gathered together all requisite paperwork, but I was missing two 1040-INT forms, two property tax statements, and the purchase price of a sold security. So I spent hours looking for them. I found all but one INT form which would have shown a negligible amount of interest. Locating the rest of them took going through all the year's papers and actually reading them to see what they were. I did locate them finally, sometime during the hours when many people are born or die. (OOoo. Sundance Kid by Kent is a great song! So's "The Golden Age" by Beck).
Anyway, after going through the statements and organizing them into chronologically consecutive notebooks, I was able to trace back the history of when the sold security first appeared on the statements, and then looked up on the net how much it cost around that month so I could subtract from the sale price to calculate the loss. I somehow still showed a cap gain though. Hence I downloaded the Instructions so I could see what I might have missed in the calculations. Nothing that I could see - still muddling through it. It would not have made an appreciable difference in the refund, so finally I just declared it "done" and e-filed. Edit - I heard from the bank (I couldn't resist inquiring about the "missing" 1040-INT). They said that account isn't interest-bearing. That would be why I couldn't find the 1040-INT form. D'oh.
So here I am at work. And by "Work" I mean listening to a band called "Rock Kills Kid" on Pandora which played right after a great one called "I am over it" by the Dandy Warhols which was quickly followed by New Order playing Slow Jam (etc.). I've created an eclectic Indie station that has so far been consistently good.
I'm reviewing the "Instructions" for the form 1040 to figure out if I did this thing correctly (the checker says I did - so at least I was internally consistent if nothing else). By "Instructions", I mean a 90-page document that purports to tell you how to fill out the "Simplified" tax return (HAHAHA!) I went through all of the possible rebates, deductions, and exemptions and found I qualified for very few of them. Even the Rebate eluded me, since I already received the Stimulus. We're still getting a good refund after State taxes, filing fees, and Turbotax (no, we couldn't free-file). It was pretty bizarre going down the wondrous list of things I thought I could qualify for but didn't. It was like, "There's this GREAT thing you can take advantage of, and by "You," I mean someone else." I'm officially wealthy.
Wealth doesn't buy everything though. As some may have noticed, it's April. One may recall how I feel about April, but if not, here's a review:
Dear April: My name is Inigo99 Montoya. You killed my father. And my mother. And my brother in law. And my youth. And, you most certainly killed last night. Prepare to die.
So ok. I really love April. The trees are just getting their first tiny leaves and flowers are blooming. Everything is being reborn. <----Sleep dep talking, really
Never Win by Fischerspooner and Mary Please by the Brian Jonestown Massacre are wonderful songs - remind me of springtime...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 04:26 pm (UTC)That's a mouthful. I hope you can get some sleep later.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 05:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 04:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 06:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 06:31 pm (UTC)I think, actually, April is a decent time to do en masse grieving, as long as no one is on your back saying, "Have fun! Be happy! It's SPRIIIING!" every moment.
It's just kinda, I dunno, rainy. And not quite warm enough. But there are still plenty of opportunities for bouncy, spring-loving people to go off and do stuff without you.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 06:54 pm (UTC)laughmake subtly derisive gestures.(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 07:03 pm (UTC)Or you could do like I've done and toss out the Western zodiac altogether. The Chinese one has better animals.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 07:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 07:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 08:46 pm (UTC)crazy project but yay done!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-03 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-02 09:04 pm (UTC)Some people wonder why I dislike Spring. Other people are smart enough not to trigger my rant on how spring is the season of death and taxes and pollen and more death and flooding and I AM GONNA EAT YOUR HEAD RAR HATE SPRING.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-03 12:55 pm (UTC)On the bright side re: spring, at least it won't be hurricane season until a few months from now...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-03 07:54 pm (UTC)New Free E-File Option
Date: 2009-04-02 11:22 pm (UTC)It is an IRS run e-File site. You select the type of tax form you want and it walks you through the e-File process. It is a bit more cryptic than Turbotax and does not handle state forms, but it is free of charge. Some states have an equivalent free e-File system for state returns. For example, Maryland has a system called iFile.
Good luck!
Re: New Free E-File Option
Date: 2009-04-03 12:08 am (UTC)Also (sadly) I need it to be less cryptic, not more so. Turbotax is extremely frustrating because they have to change every year to match new rules. So what worked last year isn't necessarily the proper procedure for this year.
I love the fact that State is included, since TT just imports State directly from Federal and I don't have to enter it twice. I also like the fact that I can file electronically, and pay filing fees and Intuit using the Federal refund, so nothing comes out of pocket and I don't have to wait long (got a notice it was already accepted by the IRS).
That said, I'd totally rather take the whole mess to an accountant and have them do it, The only problem is, it would be twice as expensive and be about the same amount of trouble. I'd still have to locate all the proper paperwork, and without actually going through the process there's a chance I'll miss something and have to come back for a second visit to the accountant. Every time I ever tried to have an accountant do the taxes, they would run into the same stuff I did - "What was the purchase price in 1972 of this obscure stock you forgot you had?" "Oh, and by the way, you know that side job you had? That's now considered a small business by the IRS, so you have to calculate deductions and enter a business code. What is your business code?" ("Uhm, I'm a what? What's my what?")
Easier to just do it myself, with all my papers very nearby in a box in the closet. Of course, the ones I needed were not in that box, so bringing that with me would not have helped...
Re: New Free E-File Option
Date: 2009-04-03 02:13 pm (UTC)Re: New Free E-File Option
Date: 2009-04-03 04:47 pm (UTC)Just so you know, Turbotax Premier Web Version costs $79.00, works every bit as well as the off-the-shelf version, and I've always gotten much more back using TT than I ever did with the accountant. They're pretty secure, I guess (as much as any web thing can be secure).
And yes, you still have to gather all the paperwork. For $600 they should be able to obtain all the information through their mutant abilities.
Re: New Free E-File Option
Date: 2009-04-03 07:55 pm (UTC)