13:41 – I’m still working on taxes. Grrrrrr. As is true every year, I find myself wishing that I could visit the graves of everyone who was responsible for creating state and federal income taxes, dig up the bodies, and urinate on them. In my fantasy, we all get one email a year from the federal and state governments, saying “just send in whatever you think is reasonable, if anything”. Instead, I have to waste lots of time complying with IRS and NC Department of Revenue record-keeping requirements and then waste lots more time getting that mass of data together at tax time, and then waste yet more time organizing it and running the numbers, all to find out how badly they’re going to rape us this year.
Oh, well. At least 2012 was an okay year, and 2013 is shaping up to be much better than 2012. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky. Our house is paid for, we have money in the bank, we have no debt other than a small car loan, and we don’t have to choose which bills to pay and which to put off paying or to lie awake nights worrying about money. There are an awful lot of people out there who wish they were in our shoes.
I am also debt free with money in the bank. TN does not have a income tax on payroll, they do have a tax on earnings from banks and stocks. Municipal bonds and income from credit unions is except. So even though the state legislation brags about no income tax I still have to send the state $150+ come tax deadline day. And what is even more irritating is that I do not get to deduct that on my federal taxes.
saying “just send in whatever you think is reasonable
Most would send nothing. I might send in a dollar just to stay on the mailing list. I don’t feel the state of TN is doing it’s job nor are the state legislators. And I most certainly would send nothing to the federal government as those clowns are really not doing anything deserving of any of my money.
We are about 95% done with filing ten years’ worth of back tax forms and words cannot describe the hellish PITA it has been for the past two years of that. We’ve had bank accounts seized/frozen and pay checks done likewise, most often with zero warning. We’ve also been threatened with the loss of all our property and fines and jail. The air around our house has turned totally blue on many occasions as a shit-storm of cursing arose from it, either from me or Mrs. OFD, and it has worn us down a number of times to thinking how peaceful the grave would be. All this, by the way, along with buying the new house and taking care of three generations of family with Mrs. OFD gone almost half of each year and also bearing up under a potentially terminal medical condition. And I had just kicked forty years of boozing.
The taxes really put the frosting on our cake, so to speak; what a frigging nightmare. I second Bob’s idea of digging up the sons of bitches responsible and pissing on them, and then having trials and hangings like the Royalists did with the “regicides” back in Ye Olde 17th-C.
And meanwhile they’re doing exactly what the late George Harrison’s song is about. Taxing the air we breathe, etc., etc. and then taxing our taxes. And taxing us again for good measure.
And I see my “back tax” phrase above became a hot link automatically and sends us to a freedom from tax problems site. Weird. I don’t believe any of these people. There is no freedom from this shit until we have another revolution and civil war. Let’s get on with it.
And now it’s not a hot link anymore….cue up Twilight Zone theme…
“And now it’s not a hot link anymore….cue up Twilight Zone theme…”
The Devil is in the works, Mr. OFD. You *know* what I mean.
Go Ron Paul:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/08/ron-paul-launches-his-own-home-school-curriculum/
We’ve also been threatened with the loss of all our property and fines and jail.
I received such a letter from the IRS. They claimed I owed $11K in taxes for a time frame about 5 years in the past. A four page document explaining how the IRS was going to sell my property located at my address in the next 30 days to satisfy the tax lien. Problem was that I never owed that amount in taxes, ever. The last paragraph indicated I should contact the IRS office for resolution.
I called the number and they said I owed no back taxes and that I never received such a letter. That conversation ended there.
I took the letter to their local office and showed them the letter. The local office could not explain why I got the letter. Until a manager looked at the SSN on the letter. It was not mine although the names matched. I then asked the IRS how they could put a tax lien on my property for the tax debt of someone else. They had no answer except to say it might be a mistake.
Mistake my ass. They simply went through their databases and everyone that had the name got the same letter. They were hunting for this person and were hoping to strike gold. I wrote and demanded a letter explaining that they were in error but never received a response.
A friend said I should have let the IRS seize the property and sell it. There are significant penalties for improperly seizing property, even if it is the IRS. I think that was bad advice as the inconvenience would be significant. Plus you would piss the IRS off and they would audit me every year with fine tooth comb and if they found one penny in error they would tack on penalties and interest. Unless the error was in their favor which they would conveniently ignore. I fully believe the IRS is vindictive organization when presented with their errors and will make the life of the person that finds the error a living hell.
Another time the IRS indicated I owed more taxes for a year. I proved that my return was accurate with documents I had. The IRS wrote back and said they would accept my return as correct but “they reserved the right to revisit the return and do a detailed audit up to 10 years later.”
I have had four run-ins with the IRS over my life and in all cases I have been correct, the IRS incorrect. Which speaks volumes for the accuracy of the IRS. Even they don’t understand their own tax rules.
The thing that gets me about the whole taxing process is the whole thing actually. But there are specific parts that irk me more than others. One is the idea that a married couple making $250,000 a year is rich. Here in Smallville, a married couple making $250,000 might actually be rich, but most families with a $250,000 income live somewhere that has a much higher cost of living than Smallville. $250,000 per year in NYC, Chicago or San Francisco is probably like $100,000 in Smallville. I guess this shouldn’t bother me, because the kind of people who make $250,000+ per year and live in NYC, Chicago or San Francisco are all Democrats, the people who keep arguing for this progressive system.
The biggest irritation is that our tax return keeps getting more complicated every year. I’d much rather pay a flat rate than have all those stupid deductions. My Mom’s return is so complicated that she overpaid $145 last year, and her return is simpler than ours. I only caught the mistake this year because I used a computer program to do her taxes. I can remember when my taxes were simple enough to do them without a computer. Those days are long gone.
Every time I hang up on a cell phone call, my Android smartphone tells me how long the call lasted. I really want to know how long I talk to certain numbers, but cannot find a way to access that total call length for each number after it disappears from my screen upon hanging up.
I just got off the phone with AT&T. I suspect that since February, I have spent a total of between 4 and 6 hours with them—and I would really like to know. They enticed me to abandon DSL for U-verse, with the offer of no charges at all for switching, and—since I somehow had a $15 credit on the DSL service—telling me they would pay for all remaining charges on that account (how about a refund?). So my only charge would be the new monthly charge for U-verse Internet only.
Do I have to relate what ended up happening? NONE of those promises came true. I was billed for an unbelievably high amount for the DSL, all kinds of charges were attached to the new U-verse bill, AND the new U-verse service is actually slower than my old DSL. I was promised 12 down and 1.5 up, and I cannot get more than 2.25 down and 0.2 up.
After hours of phone contact over the billings, I ended up having to pay more on the DSL, as they would not honor the promise that that account was ‘paid up until the switchover date’. They did say they would remove all charges from the U-verse account, and to pay just the monthly fee.
So, after doing that, today I got the second monthly bill for the U-verse service that is slower-than-DSL. It had a $2.33 “past due” amount on it. Twenty minutes later, I was again told to send just the monthly fee, as the $2.33 would be removed. Call length = 24:32.
Before the serious talking begins, they always ask whether they can use the information they must keep confidential to offer services that might be useful to me. I am always afraid to say “no”, thinking it might affect the monetary negotiations. I don’t own a TV. Neither my son, daughter, nor stepson owns a TV. Nevertheless, AT&T ALWAYS wants to sell me U-verse cable TV with “over 400 channels” and wants me to switch cell phone service. When I tell them I do not own a TV, they are dumbfounded. Surely I and all my kids are not the only people in the world who do not own a TV. They cannot even begin to match my cell phone rates, as I have unlimited everything but calls to landline phones, and they cannot offer me unlimited anything for less than about $150/phone, which is more than 3 times what I now pay.
I really felt for the girl on the other end, because I could tell she would be a nice person to have a conversation with, were we not engaged in high-pressure sales from her end. So probably 4 to 6 hours of phone, and the speed issue is still outstanding. If Comcast would just unbundle and give me only Internet, AT&T would be history in my life.
The two companies who handle internet, TV, cell phones, and stuff like that here in Nova Anglia who couldn’t be held in less repute are Comcast and AT&T.
We have Fairpoint for our internet and landline, no problems so far. And Verizon for our cells, and that is gonna have to change because we’re being killed with high charges every month; it’s gotten crazy.
Interesting experiment:
How I Stopped Eating Food
What’s In Soylent
Two Months of Soylent
Wow, I am just not that interested in all the mundane little details that eat some people up about their food intake, what they drink, how they fucking feel today, etc. Holy shit.
Just for having to glance at that material, I’m gonna grab another two pounds of the extra-lean pastrami at the Hannaford’s up here tomorrow and layer it deep on a kaiser bun with spicy mustard and onions. A side of corn chips and garlic pickles, and then half a pie, I don’t care what kind. Probably cherry. A mocha Fribble to wash it all down.
I’m thinking in terms of military or emergency food, more than daily staple. A bag of the dry stuff should keep about forever if kept dry, and a smaller pouch of oil should keep about forever if kept away from oxygen. Mix them together, add water, and shake, and you’ve got your nutrition for the day.
Oh, well in that case, sure. I just didn’t need the chapter-and-verse of every little thing going on with the stuff; your succinct summary sez it all. Plus I plan to supplement such a diet by ransacking the homes of the rich and famous at every opportunity.
I’d certainly give this a try in lieu of the usual MREs, K-rats, C-rats, etc. We had the latter in my day and they mostly sucked pretty bad, as did the base chow halls overseas; I learned fast to eat off the local economies and did way better for less. Also, any attempt, however poor, to learn some of the lingo and customs and man, they couldn’t do enough for us.
Dave B wrote:
“One is the idea that a married couple making $250,000 a year is rich.”
If I was married and living in Sydney that would be a very nice salary. Not good enough for Double Bay, but probably good enough for Bondi Beach or the North Shore.
“The biggest irritation is that our tax return keeps getting more complicated every year. I’d much rather pay a flat rate than have all those stupid deductions.”
I’ve given up.
From this FY on (due 31/10) I’m getting my income tax return done by a professional. (A distant relative other family members are happy with.) I always put it off to the last minute even though they always owe me money. I just don’t want to bother with this crap. And my return this year is likely to be more complicated due to inheritance and end of working life issues.
Size does matter, apparently…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-09/new-study-shows-size-matters-to-women/4617354
From yesterday’s reference by OFD:
“Though Australia’s national balance sheet is comparatively quite strong, the government has been running at a net deficit for years… and they’re under intense pressure to balance the budget. …”
It is always like this. You get the liberals in and they tidy the books. You get Labour in and they spend like there is no tomorrow. This particular round was even worse since Labour had to factor in the Greens and Independents in their equations to pass legislation and they introduced Carbon taxes, Mining taxes (which they collected a very small portion of) and now they will tax retirement funds on the way out… (Don’t ask me were all the money went to but you know how creative the nanny state is in spending what they collect and then some.)
I think that there is a strong chance this will be rectified later this year in the coming elections. The Liberal Party should win (although their candidate is really the contrary of charismatic) and would very likely unwind some of the destruction of the economy. They –the Liberals- had no problems on not running deficits after years and years of Labour spendthrift.
@ Miles.
Unless things have changed whilst I was not looking inheritance is not YET taxed in Aus.
I am in beautiful San Antonio at the 2013 Gas Processors Association annual meeting of about 1,700+ engineers and their significant others. To go to this, I had to get our taxes completed last weekend which I did so by feeding lots of data to TurboTax. But I am still agonizing that painting the interior of one of my commercial buildings in 2012 was a maintenance expense rather than a depreciable expense over ten years. This is why our income tax system sucks, really sucks because nothing is cut and dried.
And I have to send the IRS a four figure check on top of the large five figures that I have paid them already. For an effective tax rate of 18%. Thieving bloodsuckers!
We are about 95% done with filing ten years’ worth of back tax forms
Dare we ask what happened, to require this? In any case, you definitely have my sympathy. The requirement to file US taxes was in the top 2 or 3 on my list of reasons to expatriate. What is even more annoying is the almost total lack of due process: tax authorities can do pretty much whatever they damn well please. At least in the case of the IRS, the courts that review their actions are run by the tax authorities themselves.
As I understand it, the IRS requires you to keep records for the past three years. However, if they only claim to suspect you of fraud rather than an innocent mistake, they claim they can go back to the beginning of time. Keeping your records from before three years would seem to be an admission that you are anticipating problems, but not having those records could be a disaster. So: how far back should you keep records, and how far back is the IRS ever likely to want them? I will throw a party when I can toss my last US tax records!
I meant to include the link to the IRS page How long should I keep records. Here’s the important bit:
1. You owe additional tax and situations (2), (3), and (4), below, do not apply to you; keep records for 3 years.
2. You do not report income that you should report, and it is more than 25% of the gross income shown on your return; keep records for 6 years.
3. You file a fraudulent return; keep records indefinitely.
I find #3 particular odd, as it implies that keeping returns more than 6 years is essentially an admission of fraud. I better throw out a bunch of boxes in the attic, as I have something like 30 years of financial documents up there…
Back in 1988 the mortgage company that had acquired my house loan filed a 1099 rather than a 1098 for the interest I had paid them. It was for several thousands of dollars. I figured they would correct their mistake. Bzzzzttttt, wrong.
Two years later I get a notice from the IRS that I owed taxes on the income on the 1099 and had declared interest on a 1098 that did not exist. I went to the IRS office and showed them that the mortgage company had made a mistake and that it was impossible for a mortgage to have any interest income and is supposed to be interest paid. The IRS office said no dice. I had to prove it.
So I went back to the mortgage company and told them I wanted a corrected 1099 showing zero money paid to me and a 1098 showing the interest I paid. The mortgage company admitted the mistake and said it only affected a few people. They were not going to send corrected forms as it was not their problem.
So I worked my way up the food chain with no success. The mortgage company was located in another state so I contacted the district attorney’s office of the state. I indicated the mortgage company was reporting interest paid to them as interest they paid to mortgage holders. Thus, the mortgage company had probably misreported their taxes to the state.
That got the mortgage company’s attention. Within a week the mortgage company called me back and said that corrected forms were on the way. I would like to know what the DA said to the mortgage company. Two years later they were out of business or had been sold.
I took the corrected forms to the IRS and even then the IRS said they would have to research before the matter could be resolved. It took another year for the IRS to acknowledge my return was correct. I figure the IRS delays as long as possible so they can accumulate as much interest on the amount due as possible.
The IRS is not out to help the taxpayer. If you make a mistake in the IRS’s favor they will not correct the mistake unless it is glaring. But make a mistake in your favor and the IRS will be all over it like stink on a sand monkey.
We have found that the banksters work pretty much in the same way as the IRS Gestapo; if it’s in your favor, they’ll fight it tooth and nail or ignore you totally, for years. If it’s in their favor, they’ll send the equivalent of tanks and SWAT to get our money. And you are presumed guilty at all times.
Frankly, I don’t see much difference other than scale and complexity between the way these things work now and the way they worked in medieval/feudal times. And I harbor no illusions that if we somehow dismantle the current regime, the succeeding one will be any better, after a while. In our own history the Jeffersonians and anti-Federalists had the upper hand for a short while and then the Hamiltonians took over and won out, permanently. Hell, there were two Jeffersons; I and II, the second one having gone over to the Hamilton side and also hanging onto his slaves, some of them relatives. Sheer off-the-scale brilliance became, with age, greed.
Holy crap, my pooter weather thing here on the Plantation sez 65! But dark, overcast, and steady drizzle today, with fog on the Bay.
Marcelo wrote:
“Unless things have changed whilst I was not looking inheritance is not YET taxed in Aus.”
I don’t think it is, but I like to be sure. Plus there are complications…
When mum died last October she owned 40% of my sister’s place (my sister needed to be rescued financially because her skunk of an ex-husband cleaned her out.) That means I now have a 1/3 of 40% share of my sister’s place. She can’t afford to pay my brother and I out at the moment, and we’re looking in to the capital gains tax and other implications of the settlement. Real estate prices are pretty low in Adelaide at the moment, which means now isn’t a good time to sell. No matter, I don’t need the dough.
Good story OFD. Thank is something to learn about. BTW, just in case anyone needs to fill out a Form 1098, I found a blank form here http://goo.gl/AalaQy. This site PDFfiller also has some tutorials how to fill it out and a few related tax forms that you might find useful.
Thanks, Paul, belatedly, LOL; I had to look at the year twice.