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...



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!