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.