Tax-minding is mind-taxing
Apr. 15th, 2008 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, it's That Time Of Year.
I finally realized I could procrastinate no longer last night. I opened up TaxCut, spread out my litter of forms before me, and set to work. I had a bit more complicated tax situation than usual this year. There was the 1099-G for unemployment, two W2s (the temp agency that got me my Mihlfeld job, and my Mihlfeld one), a W2C (Mihlfeld goofed its W2 and had to correct it), two 1099miscs (medical study clinic and the TalkShoe shows), a 1098E for my student loan, and a 5498SA for my health savings bank account. Whew.
I made a decent chunk of change on the medical study and podcasting last year. Decent enough to eat up all my withholdings, so even though I habitually take one or two more than I have to, I ended up owing the government just a smidge of money. I paid $1,175 in total Federal tax, of which $1,083 had been withheld, and $233 of Missouri tax, $164 of which had been withheld. So, I got to send $161 in to Uncle Sam. Luckily I just got paid last weekend.
But getting it actually sent in was an exercise in frustration. TaxCut could have filed it for me for $20. Or I could have efiled online for free through the IRS, but there weren't any on-line systems where I could just type the information on the forms, I would have had to go through the entire taxing questionnaire again (including having to dig up my 2006 return information that the TaxCut software imported from the 2006 version) and I just didn't feel up to it.
So I wrote my checks, got a couple of envelopes, put the PDF of my tax return in an attachment on a draft on my gmail account, and scootered down to Kinko's. Where I found it would cost me $9 to print the return off of their Internet terminal, so I said no thanks and headed back home. I decided I'd just print it off at work today, and send it on my lunchbreak.
And this I did—but while I was doing that at work, I discovered I had left my W2s at home. Oops. So there was nothing for it but to scooter back home and get them, then head down to the nearby post office to send them out and get them certified. There were a bunch of protesters outside the post office with placards exhorting spending tax on the economy rather than war, not quite blocking people from getting in but making it hard enough that everyone else in line inside was complaining about them.
I got the envelopes stuffed and sealed and certified and sent…and it was only when I got back to work that I realized I had forgotten to sign and date the returns. Nothing for it. I printed out two more copies, got two more envelopes, signed and dated those, and sent them along with a note explaining the rest of the documentation and the check were in another envelope with the unsigned returns. Hopefully they'll meet up at the appropriate revenue offices.
Adding insult to injury, it was only after all this rigamarole that I learned that, because of the recent flooding in my area, local taxpayers were granted an extension to file until May 19th. Would have been nice to know about that sooner so I could have waited to send the checks in until the stimulus check got here.
Oh well. At least it's all over and I don't have to worry about it for another year.
And speaking of the poking-the-economy-with-a-stick check, I'm quite looking forward to it. At about the same time the check comes, I should also earn a $1050 payout from another medical study. I've got about $1200 in combined credit card and NewEgg preferred account debt left, so my study and stimulus should clear it out quite nicely with a bit left over. (I'm so glad that I'm not one of those sob stories you hear about who ran up umpteen zillion bucks in credit card debt. I've got about $50,000 in student loan debt left, but at least that's not credit card debt.)
On a friend's advice, I'm thinking of sticking $200 of that leftover bit into a certificate of deposit, timed to mature shortly before tax time next year—so I'll not be tempted to spend it, and I'll have it available if I need to send Uncle Sam another check.
I finally realized I could procrastinate no longer last night. I opened up TaxCut, spread out my litter of forms before me, and set to work. I had a bit more complicated tax situation than usual this year. There was the 1099-G for unemployment, two W2s (the temp agency that got me my Mihlfeld job, and my Mihlfeld one), a W2C (Mihlfeld goofed its W2 and had to correct it), two 1099miscs (medical study clinic and the TalkShoe shows), a 1098E for my student loan, and a 5498SA for my health savings bank account. Whew.
I made a decent chunk of change on the medical study and podcasting last year. Decent enough to eat up all my withholdings, so even though I habitually take one or two more than I have to, I ended up owing the government just a smidge of money. I paid $1,175 in total Federal tax, of which $1,083 had been withheld, and $233 of Missouri tax, $164 of which had been withheld. So, I got to send $161 in to Uncle Sam. Luckily I just got paid last weekend.
But getting it actually sent in was an exercise in frustration. TaxCut could have filed it for me for $20. Or I could have efiled online for free through the IRS, but there weren't any on-line systems where I could just type the information on the forms, I would have had to go through the entire taxing questionnaire again (including having to dig up my 2006 return information that the TaxCut software imported from the 2006 version) and I just didn't feel up to it.
So I wrote my checks, got a couple of envelopes, put the PDF of my tax return in an attachment on a draft on my gmail account, and scootered down to Kinko's. Where I found it would cost me $9 to print the return off of their Internet terminal, so I said no thanks and headed back home. I decided I'd just print it off at work today, and send it on my lunchbreak.
And this I did—but while I was doing that at work, I discovered I had left my W2s at home. Oops. So there was nothing for it but to scooter back home and get them, then head down to the nearby post office to send them out and get them certified. There were a bunch of protesters outside the post office with placards exhorting spending tax on the economy rather than war, not quite blocking people from getting in but making it hard enough that everyone else in line inside was complaining about them.
I got the envelopes stuffed and sealed and certified and sent…and it was only when I got back to work that I realized I had forgotten to sign and date the returns. Nothing for it. I printed out two more copies, got two more envelopes, signed and dated those, and sent them along with a note explaining the rest of the documentation and the check were in another envelope with the unsigned returns. Hopefully they'll meet up at the appropriate revenue offices.
Adding insult to injury, it was only after all this rigamarole that I learned that, because of the recent flooding in my area, local taxpayers were granted an extension to file until May 19th. Would have been nice to know about that sooner so I could have waited to send the checks in until the stimulus check got here.
Oh well. At least it's all over and I don't have to worry about it for another year.
And speaking of the poking-the-economy-with-a-stick check, I'm quite looking forward to it. At about the same time the check comes, I should also earn a $1050 payout from another medical study. I've got about $1200 in combined credit card and NewEgg preferred account debt left, so my study and stimulus should clear it out quite nicely with a bit left over. (I'm so glad that I'm not one of those sob stories you hear about who ran up umpteen zillion bucks in credit card debt. I've got about $50,000 in student loan debt left, but at least that's not credit card debt.)
On a friend's advice, I'm thinking of sticking $200 of that leftover bit into a certificate of deposit, timed to mature shortly before tax time next year—so I'll not be tempted to spend it, and I'll have it available if I need to send Uncle Sam another check.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 03:40 am (UTC)