Taxes

Thank you all for sympathy, encouragement, and  hopes for easy success on my taxes.  It helped.  And I successfully e-filed my Federal Taxes yesterday afternoon.  After attempting to complete my taxes before April 15th, in June (after having filed for an extention in April) and in August, I was at my wit's end.

Some explanation...

In April, my H&R Block software said I had no network connection.  So I assumed that meant it was a problem on my computer and filed for the 6 month extension.  I figured I had to solve the "no network connection" on my own.  But 6 months seemed like lots of time and I wasn't having a network problem with anything else.  

So I tackled it again in June.  No luck!  Tried again in August.  That time, I decided to call H&R Block and demand to know what "no network connection" meant to them.  I reached a very helpful techie who helped me check my network.  After about 20 minutes of no success, she suggested I just reload the software.  I was worried that I would lose the existing "almost" completed Federal return, but she assured me I wouldn't (as it was a separate file).

So I did and the "no network connection" problem went away and my file remained.  Yay!  So in September, I went back at the taxes.

OMG, the software was different and I discovered there were documents I was missing.  Apparently, the whole problem was some failure during the initial software download in April!  But I had a month to find the missing documents before the Oct 15 deadline.

My, how time flies...

So last week, I realized I had to sit down and get everything together.  First thing was to sort out 6" of unfiled general billing/receipt stuff and file them while looking for the missing documents.  That was long overdue and worth doing, but I didn't find the documents I was missing.

Not to reveal details, but I had 2 major missing documents.  The first was a summary of my mutual fund  investments.  Downloading that one from the mutual fund website was easier than I expected.  There was an obvious button for "downloading tax forms".  Yay.  

The second was the one for a Government Savings Program.  It requires that you start withdrawing 10% per year after age 73 and I turned 73 last year, so this year was the first time I had to report about that.  Worse, if you don't withdraw it voluntarily, they send you a check anyway (minus earned interest).  

So I wasn't familiar with it and didn't recognize when the software was asking about it.  The term "Minimum Required Distribution" didn't mean anything to me.  So I went to the H&R Help Desk (a FAQ, not a person) and figured it out.  But entering it in the tax software raised an alarm.  Which, of course, I did not understand.  Turned out they sent 2 checks and I had forgotten about the 2nd one.

Anyway, I finally got that straightened out...  But it seems that I managed to delete my previous Federal Form entry, so I had to start all over again.  I felt like Ahab fighting the whale!

At least I went through the process a bit more smoothly yesterday.  There are still some entries I'm not certain about.  There are terms and phrases the Government uses that are not exactly plain English, and they explain terms as best they can.

At the end of the Federal form, they (H&R) do a review for completeness and risk analysis.  I did have to go back and fill in a couple of entries I had accidentally skipped (minor stuff like an address confirmation).  But they said after that, that they found no errors.  

So I e-filed the Federal return yesterday (free, and I already have a confirmation the IRS has accepted it.).  Later today, I'll do the State return.  That will be easy because most of it is automatically entered from the Federal return.  I'll snail-mail it Monday because H&R charges $20 for e-filing the State return.  Why the Federal e-filing is free and the State is $20 escapes me.  

I just had to stop after hours with the Federal return (and it was time for dinner).

Next year, I'll just dump everything on a live H&R Block office and avoid all this.  I'm not the dimmest bulb in the room, but this tax stuff is just getting too ridiculous. 

I once read a joke about a simplified tax form.  As follows...

"A.  How much did you earn last year?

B.  How much do you have left?

C.  Send B."

Reconsidering Offline

Maybe going offline until I get my taxes done isn't the best idea.  I can only do so much paperwork in a day.  There is value in posting about other things for a change in menbtal focus and some relaxation.  And to discuss progress.

To get my taxes right, I need some documents.  And in spite of being an office worker for 3 decades, I was and am a terrible filer.  I had an 8" tall stack of stuff  (credit card, insurance, and bank statements; vet and Dr visit documents; all kinds of stuff; on the top of my filing cabinet and I expected the documents I needed were in there somewhere.

So yesterday, I spent almost 6 hours sorting the stack into subjects, organizing the documents by date, and then filing them.  Binq tried to help, but mostly she kept swishing her tail in my face, scattering the documents, and demanding attention.  Generally keeping to herself, she does have times of wanting considerable attention.  Otherwise, it might have only taken 4 hours.

But it did get completed.

Not to get too detailed, but I have a particular saving account that requires 10% withdrawals each year at my age.  I ignored that requirement at first, but they forced 2 checks on me in 2023 and I am missing one of them, which is where I started having problems understanding the tax forms even with H&R Block software (probably my fault, not theirs).  I mean, they ask the right questions, but you still have to answer them correctly.  

And I only had a document for 1 of the 2.  The information I need is probably also in my bank statements.     I might be able to get the forms from the special savings account website.  But that is the project for later today.

I stopped when it was time to make dinner and time to make sure The Mews were inside and get First Dinner.

So later today, I get back at the taxes.  Hopefully, I will actually find the missing document directly and easily from the account website.  If not, I will have to search my bank account statements to find the specific deposits (hence my sorting and filing efforts of yesterday.

But if I don't post for a couple days, assume I'm having troubles and am distracted...