Tax Day rants

[thatcrazycajun]

• I knew I was probably going to get a refund. I knew it would likely be at least a couple C-notes. And I really need the money back, more than ever this year as my current employer has cut back the hours of everyone on staff to four days a week this very month. So why the frakking hell did I procrastinate until almost the very last minute—again? It's not like the process is that onerous...even less so this year since I only had one employer, unlike last year and some previous years when I've had to slog through entering W-2s for five or six different temp agencies. Someone please dig into my brain and fix this shit, like, yesterday. (On the upside, the refund was indeed around $200 from the feds and Georgia combined. And yes, I know I'm giving them an interest-free loan all year by not withholding less; my long preference has been to do that rather than find myself owing money instead of getting it come filing time.)
• 43 states in the U.S. of A. levy their own income tax on top of that demanded by Uncle Sugar. Several private firms offer free e-filing as part of the Internal Revenue Service's lower-income filer program...but only for the federal return. Unless you live in Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington or Wyoming, you will always have to file two—count 'em, two—returns by this date every year, one to the IRS and one to your state's Department of Revenue and Taxation. Someone please tell me why, if the gummint can make TurboTax, TaxCut et al. offer free e-filing to those below a certain income level for the federal return, they can't make them do the same for the state returns? News flash, guys: if you make us shell out any money at all to satisfy the law, you do NOT get to call it "free." Can you say "false advertising"? I knew you could.
• And the first person who types in my face, "You could kiss all this aggravation goodbye if you'd join us in supporting the FairTax," or other words to that effect, gets horsewhipped. Naked. In Times Square. At high noon. In January. Anyone who's actually run the real, relevant numbers—and isn't cooking their math or cherry-picking data to suit a tax-and-government-hating, right-wing agenda—knows the "FairTax" is anything but. With all of its admitted flaws (and there are a great many), the current progressive tax system is still the fairest one we've had...or will be once we finish getting rid of Junior Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent.
• Finally, as an interesting aside, the Tax Foundation reports here that "Tax Freedom Day"—the day of the year by which we've earned that portion of our annual income that goes to pay Uncle Sugar and start getting to keep the rest of our pay—is actually just two days prior to Tax Day this year. That's right: it was this past Monday, April 13.

How's your tax season been? Already filed long since, or rushing to beat the clock like me? Got money back, or had to pay? Anyone who doesn't feel bothered publicly disclosing such information about themselves is welcome to join the party.

Comments

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Actually many states tax filing deadlines are AFTER the Federal Deadline.

My argument about flat taxes is pretty simple.

The same people who bitch about it usually scream really loudly about the AMT (which is truly evil). But the AMT is a flat tax (or flatter anyway). What the flat tax advocates are saying they want is an AMT...but they really don't.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Actually many states tax filing deadlines are AFTER the Federal Deadline.

I came here to say that.

Virginia State tax deadline is May 1.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Stipulated; some states do give you an extra month. (I ought to know; I used to live in one of them.) Thanks for the reminder.

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

LA's deadline is May 15. NH doesn't have a personal income tax; neither does FL.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Agreed. And what absolutely flummoxes me about the AMT is why we keep getting an outcry to fix it every year so people lower down the ladder don't get nailed unfairly by it, rather than simply pass a law that should have been part of the original legislation: automatic yearly adjustment of the AMT for inflation and bracket creep.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Also knew we were getting refunds; also procrastinated. (It's always something, as the wise woman said :-) But I do the simple thing for our simple needs, and have an Excel sheet with its lines directly paralleled to the 1040A (or the state equivalent form) that we're going to file, with subsidiary worksheets as needed feeding numbers back in. I've done that for seven or eight years now, and all I have to do is check for this year's revisions, then input numbers. And I still always almost forget stuff.

The weather here is ugly; with luck, it will hold down the Faux Noise-sponsored teabagging rally numbers.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

One thing people don't realize about the Fair Tax is that it would do away with the IRS and the income tax and the 1040's and everything like that, and it would put something in where you pay for what you use. That's the part that no one who is against the Fair Tax seems to mention, that this would replace all of that.

Now what's wrong with that?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Actually the so-called "Fair Tax" would NOT do away with the IRS; there's still that minimum refund thingy that would have to get mailed, etc. and thus there's still the whole Big Brother aspect of it... Ptui.

What *I* think they ought to do is *really* abolish the IRS, and do a straight consumption tax on the first retail sale of anything except food. This way someone who wanted or needed to live frugally could do so: Buy clothes at thrift stores (second sale - no tax), used vehicle (no tax), rent your housing (no tax - it's not a good)... you'd basically pay tax on t.p. and toothpaste and that's it. oops! Medicine. Leave that untaxed, too.

Make sense? Or am I out in left field up against the warning track?

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

If that's so, then I stand corrected, for I had believed that Fair Tax would rid us of income tax and the IRS, etc. I still think we should rid ourselves of the IRS, but then who listens to people like us?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Not enough folk listen to us yet, that's for sure.

Yet.

I do believe this IntarWeb thingy is starting to make a difference...

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

I'm also checking regarding the IRS and stuff, just to be sure.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Good! It's good to see folks get in the habit of checking for themselves.

*sigh* if it were up to me, Journalism 101 (along with classes concerning *all* the other Amendments) would be required in 6th/7th grades...

(Only we turn the 3rd Amendment on its ear: The Third, if you recall, prohibits Quartering. Training on the Third would be Camping 101. Tents, sheltering, camp cooking, stuff your trooper would need in the field.)

But that's a whole 'nother rant.

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

Filed for an extension; I'm expecting a refund once I close on the house I'm buying, which should be later this month.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Regarding paying for state filing; I'm pretty sure that the feds have no authority over the state taxes at all. What legal mechanism would they use?

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

I'm about to head to the Post Awful with payments and extension applications for ourselves and a few corporations. We are owed money, personally, but waiting on the IRS to see how they interpret new rules is always prudent if you run a business or have complicated taxes, which we do. That way we can avoid being guinea pigs with our returns. And always send your correspondence with the tax authorities by certified mail; that way you know they got it and can prove they did if they subsequently lose it.

Hope you get your cash back soon!

I forgot to mention

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

that I filed my fed and state taxes about 2 weeks ago. Refund from the feds, payment to the state (but not a whole lot).

[tollermom]

Filed a week ago, after my ex-business-partner finally finished the business returns. Ugh. The joys of closing a business... we shut down because we were tired of chasing deadbeats to pay us what they'd owed us for the last two years. However, we were so efficient about beating people up before we shut down that we ended up showing a profit this year based on finally collecting from people who felt guilty. Smallish refunds due from state and feds... hopefully arriving just in time to pay the guys who are putting my house back in order after the spring flood, which is costing about $1k more than the insurance is paying.