Showing posts with label Money. Charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Charity. Show all posts

Monday, July 13, 2020

Doing Income Taxes

I finally got around to doing my income tax forms today.  I had started in early April, but the software kept refusing completion.  Try as I might, I could not figure out why.  But knowing there was an extension, I dropped the matter intending to get back at it "in a few weeks".

Of course I didn't!  I my career, I was a natural self-starter and never needed a supervisor to ask "How is the X Project going".  And around the yard and house, I normally do stuff when needed on my own (like who else is there to tell me to do anything?).

But set a deadline on something I don't really want to do, and I will use all the time available to do things I think more pressing.  So here it is July 12th and taxes are due in 3 days, so I sat down to figure out what had bedeviled me in April.

I opened the existing Federal form and went through it step by step.  Everything seemed accurate.  This time, the software said a review found nothing wrong.  Well, that's because the software believes what you tell it.  I got to the end and realized it said my gross income was about $19,000.  Whoa, way wrong.

I managed (somehow) to miss the part about my retirement annuity!  No wonder the software was unhappy in April.  Why it wasn't bothered this time is beyond me.  But after I got all that part in, the results looked right and normal, and the software allowed me to complete the Federal and State forms, and print them out.

I owe, I owe, so off to the checkbook I go...

I need to increase my withholding slightly for both, but at least it isn't so much that I owe an underpayment penalty, but I think it was close.  My goal is to make it a tiny refund on both just so I don't have to bother writing a check to both. 

But I just HAD to tell you about the really silly mistake I made the back in April.  If you can't laugh at yourself, you have no right to laugh at others for any reason!

BTW, I did discover one sad fact.  I donated my old car to a charity a few days ago.  It turns out that, with new tax rules, the standard deduction is way more than my charitable giving.  Like by $12,200 (standard deduction) to $3000 (charitable giving) and the fair market deduction for the old car ($2,000?) isn't going to get me above THAT!  So the maybe $1500 I could have sold the car for is lost money. 

Well, in a financial sense, so is the $3,000 I gave to other causes, and I will treat it the same way.  Good deeds...  In fact, I think I will give more this year. 

At least my taxes are done for another 9 months!  And I don't mind them.  They (mostly) go to good purposes.

I'll add an image in slight jest, though...

Uncle Sam Meme - Imgflip

And as long as I'm here and typing, I'll mention George Carlin about class and taxes.  He had one routine where he "explained it all".  Basically, the Upper Class doesn't do any work and runs off with all the money and doesn't pay taxes. The Middle Class pays all the taxes and does all the work.   The Poor are there to scare the heck out of the Middle Class.

Funny stuff, though I will say he ignored the unpleasant and hard work of the Poor.  No analogy is perfect...

OK, time to play with The Mews before dinnertime.  I wonder how Laz will react to wand toys and the Red Dot!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Interesting Day, Part 2

So after the "energy inspector" left yesterday, I had other things to do.

First, there was yet one more form to get notarized about Dad's death.  Dad had 4 investment accounts and life insurance (and 2 days retirement pay), which all required some forms (several of which needed bank manager legal signatures and stamps).  So I had all but the last one signed, copied and filed.  The last was just a Notary stamp, and I had the envelope all filled out (just needing the one last page stamped).

I got that, went straight to the post Office (they were all oversize envelopes of 6-10 pages, so I couldn't just stick an extra stamp on them).  OK, that's all done. 

I'm conflicted.  I don't need the money (I've been fortunate to have done well enough myself).  But I'm grateful to Dad for having accumulated it over his life and I appreciate my portion of his life's savings.  And he knew from our financial discussions over the years that I was doing well. 

So I'm going to increase my giving to charitable organization that I think help the world best.  I'm not naming specific ones, but world hunger, world medical treatments, and the general environment are high on my list.  And there will be a local cat no kill-shelter (Southern Maryland suggestions are invited).

After getting home, I planted leeks among the corn.  There's enough sunlight around the base of the corn for the leeks to thrive.  It was nice to get some dirt under my fingernails!  I have the corns planted about 8" apart in bins (its an experiment), but I figure the small space the leeks require won't bother the corn.  SCORE!

And then I wanted to get my garden mailbox re-installed.  I use 2 mailboxes in the yard to store small tools.  One is in the garden itself (for hand tools).  The other is at the deck for hose nozzles and attachments.  This one was the latter.  The old attachment had been poorly constructed and a bit off level.  I fixed that today, and attached it to the center post of the new deck absolutely level. SCORE!

They I decided to hang the niger thistle-seed finch-feeder from the center of the deck.  But there were 3 deck posts and only 2 long hangers.  So I need a third.  But I did have the 2 to install, so I did that.  And in honor of the new deck, I did it RIGHT!

I set one about balanced sideways on the post and clamped it loosely.  I have this neat tool that gives an analog dial red at any angle.  Old but accurate.  I clamped the hanger in about the center and level position, then measured it side to side.  I attached a screw at the bottom, then adjusted the position of the hanger to be level and clamped it tight.  Set in another screw at the top (pilot hole for accuracy and all that ease of screwing).  Perfect.  Now I just have to plant some appropriate flowers in the baskets to be hung. 

After THAT, I dug up weeds around the tomatoes and the bell peppers I planted.  They are all doing well.

By tht time, it was getting near dark out.  I called the cats in.  They get kibbles as treats when the come in when called.  Dinner was a smoked half steak sliced thin with carmelized onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and crimini mushrooms (cheaper lately than regular white mushrooms), bean beans, tossed salad, and M/V potato.




Looking Up

 While I was outside with The Mews, I laid back and looked up.  I thought the tree branches and the clouds were kind of nice. Nothing import...