Tax time again...
 

Non-US citizens, I presume, find this annual mind-bash amusing. And I'm getting a much later start than usual, as things have been rather busy.

Just finished Schedule D. And it would appear that I have finally used up the last of my short-term and long-term carryovers from the Fiscal Unpleasantness of 2007. Hard to believe that it's been nearly ten years...

Having to pay Capital Gains tax again next year is going to suck. I'd really gotten used to being able to avoid it.


Don't get me wrong- I'll be much more pissed off if I DON'T have to pay Capital Gains tax for FY16...

Don't get me started on AMT...

Turbo tax and very simple finances ftw?

Yuuuhp. :likecat:

I had 3 things to enter today. Almost 500 return, more than last year.

I usually try to get to $0 as much as possible.

Is this the part of the year where I pay $10K to the government so that they can tell me what I'm no allowed to do? Thanks government!

Me thinks I'll be paying my first CG taxes on gains earned in CY16. Short term gains, so taxed out the ass, nevertheless, it's a good feeling.

Kicked TurboTax to the curb a few years ago. Been using TaxAct instead -- it's cheaper and works the same.

"free" country FTW!

Free as in speech, not free as in beer.



I used various tax-prep software for several years.

In 2010, I was having trouble getting it to correctly compute some random deduction on my business taxes. I knew what it was supposed to do, but couldn't make it do it. I finally said "fuck it," gave up, and just did my whole tax return by hand using the downloadable IRS forms.

And I actually found it easier.

It's more work, to be certain. But I always hated how the tax-prep software tries to obscure the underlying forms from you until output time. It doesn't really let you see what's happening under the cover, so to speak. And they all do it.

Since then, I haven't used any tax-prep software at all. I do it with the raw forms, and can usually hammer it out in a single evening with a couple of beers. This year was particularly easy, since I only had one job and was straight W-2 the whole way.

Finished 1040 last night, and I owe a little over $12. Closest shave I've gotten yet. Fortunately, I lived in one state for all of 2015 (been a while since that happened), so only one state return to do.

We tried to get it close, but took too many deductions and are getting back a ton.

the tax code is stupid and it's like guess and check to try to actually do it correctly without owing/receiving.

I just pay an accountant. With a job, a business (dildo sales ftw) and income property it's too much to do on my own.

Getting 8.2k back this year. This is the first time I have ever gotten more then 1.5k between federal and state. Having a small business that is not profitable yet is amazing. So thanks to everyone buying my setups. Keep doing it so I can keep more money in my pockets.

Keep it not profitable :)

If you do it more than 3 years in a row, then the IRS reclassifies it as a hobby. It seems incredible today, but there were jokes about this happening to Apple in the 90s... :)

--Ian

I write quarterly checks.

Yep my accountant and I talked about that. There is a 9 point list that they use. I easily pass 7 of the things and the other 2 I can get around with a little work on my end. I also do plan on turning a profit in the next year or two. Getting close to having all the big purchases I "need" purchased.

Your setup is going on my next DD miata :pitlab:

Only if you promise not to run a reflashed stock ecu and a XEDE.

Ill squirt for you BB <3

For the first year in a very long time, my state income tax return is "simple" enough that I'm eligible to file my forms electronically with the state, rather than putting stamp on them.

So I created an online account with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

To verify my account creation, and as a supposed security measure, they mailed a physical letter back to me via USPS, confirming this fact.

What the fuck is up with organizations, both municipal and commercial, using physical mail as a confirmation to online activities? Banks do it, insurance companies do it, hell, even Verizon mails me a physical letter every month informing me that I owe them nothing because my FiOS bill has been automatically paid electronically.

Not only do I not bother to even check the mail more than once a week or so, but a lot of people reside in rural areas in which the mailbox is just a freestanding thing on a post out by the side of the road, with no lock or physical security of any kind. Sending a letter in the mail is quite possibly the slowest, least reliable means of communication this side of smoke signals. Not to mention the fact that archiving postal communications requires me to drag around a big, heavy filing cabinet every time I move as opposed to, you know, having instantaneous, searchable access to every document I've ever sent or received, from any location on earth, in perpetuity, without having to kill trees and lug heavy shit around.

I reached out to you via electronic means because security and timeliness are important to me. So why the hell are you responding to me via a mechanism which is not only more costly and less convenient, but was already obsolete at the time of the US Civil War?

Joe, what would you do if you received an unsolicited letter from "Quicken Loans" confirming your mortgage loan application?

Assuming I even bothered to open and read it, rather than just tossing it into the bin as I do most unsolicited mail?

First, run a credit check on myself via an online provider, to see if there's an inquiry listed on it for said loan.

Second, send an email to Quicken, with an electronic copy (eg, a scan converted into a PDF) of said confirmation attached, inquiring as to the reason I've received said correspondence.

The point I'm getting at: those slow, expensive notifications that you're getting are not intended to let you know that you have opened an account, but rather, they are intended to let you know that your identity has been used to open an account. It's fairly common for a person to get a new phone number or email address, making those methods of verifying your identity relatively insecure. It's also not entirely unlikely that a decent ID theft will also get your email address/password when they have a "replacement" credit card sent out overnight to Miami, where "you" are staying. Unfortunately for the bad guys, it's exceedingly difficult (though I suppose not impossible) to hack a mailbox remotely in order to throw your paper notification in the trash before you can read it.

Regarding the verizon bill confirmation, I suspect that Verizon has probably had enough spoiled-brat-raising parents with the occasional outrageous phone bill that they may have decided company-wide to default to charging you an extra 49 cents/month to notify you of the charges on your account. I'm anti-Verizon, but I suspect they've probably got a "paperless" option, even if you have to call them in order to make it happen. You're not going to get your 49 cents back, though - call it paper-billing socialism.

There are definitely some monthly statements that I get that I also consider a complete waste of paper and postage. They go in the trash with the credit card offers.

I filed by TurboTax for a whopping $95! Got $2.5k back though. I had it about where I liked it for returns in the past. but got married in 2015, so that jacked my return up.

I totally understand the point above.

For me, however, it's completely inverse. Since 2003, I've had twelve different home addresses (not counting temporary corporate housing and hotels in which I've resided for periods of up to 4 months continuously) but have kept the same gmail address and the same Vonage phone number. My email and phone are the constants in my life, whereas my underwear tends to last longer than my place of residence. I'll never forget the year when I literally didn't have a home address to write on my Federal tax returns.

And yea, I get the thing about Verizon and bratty kids. But again, this is FiOS, which is a totally separate division of the company from Verizon Wireless. You can't even bundle the two services together.


[/rant]

H&R Block TaxCut is about $30-35 and works well enough. It imports info the second year so you have to type in less than the first time if you have the same employer or similar deductions.

Finally got done computing that portion of my earning which I owe to the crown as tribute.

$4,300 back from the fed (this seems to happen every time I move state-to-state), $59 back from Illinois, and $2,900 owed to NYC.

Wanna know what I'm gonna do with the $1,400 net refund?


(Also, addressing my last point frin the first post, I did have to pay capital gains tax for FY16, so that's a good year.)

you'll finally buy that rare limited edition myPony figurine and be the talk of the brony community?

Move to an income-tax-free state?

Unless it's hookers and blow, you're just wasting it.

QFT

Buy an MKTurbo setup? Mod discount, so $1400 shipped for you. I already have your address, and I can fill the box with dicks or ponies, or some silly shit.

This just reminded me i should do my taxes lol

This reminds me I need to send off my paperwork back to the CPA that does my taxes.

I did my own for years, even when I was married (we filed separately), but when we started filing together we let a CPA do it (what she had always done) because she was self-employed and it was just easier.

Since being divorced I just pay my money and still let them do it.

Been looking around, I can't even come close to spending $1,400 on a single Pony toy, and that includes a 5 foot tall, free-standing plush/knit Princess Celestia that I found on Etsy. Not a big Celestia fan, but kinda curious to see if she'd take a commission to do a Queen Chrysalis for me in the same style.

Did I mention the giant Falkor the Luckdragon that my sister bought through Etsy from some lady in Russia? That girl spends money like it's going out of style...


Wasn't really considering it at the time you offered (my daily commute rarely exceeds 25 mph), but depending on the outcome of the next few weeks, might actually be something to think about... Does it really include a whole turbine-to-tailpipe exhaust system?

It includes a manifold, turbo, down pipe, and a full 3" exhaust. I will even drive up and hand deliver it to you in NC.

I'll be sending my annual check and quarterly payment on the 18th. Nice to be self employed...

Since I'm a tax preparer/consultant by trade, I try to get mine done as early as possible. Last thing I want to be doing this week is a return I can't bill out.

The consumer tax software is maddening to me for the reasons Joe mentioned a year ago: they obscure the forms. I taught taxation as an adjunct a couple years ago and wanted to pull my hair out trying to use the H&R Block software.