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Taxes, death, and instructions
Apr. 2nd, 2009 11:10 amSo 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...
