Tax notes

This year, for the first time, I bought TurboTax. I spent a few hours last night doing my taxes.

It was pretty easy overall, but it screwed up a stock sale I made, which I made partly because I was dead broke and needed the money—this was around the time that Gracie’s operations were going on—and partly because I knew it’d pay off big-time on my taxes because I lost a LOT of money when the tech bubble burst, and I’ve been getting a few dollars back here and there on my taxes. I have two more stock dogs that I will probably liquidate and then never, ever, ever play the market again, because I suck at it. But since it’s possible I will be a 1099 contractor for the rest of this year, every little bit helps with the Taxman, so I’ll probably sell off the other dogs in December. They’re never going to regain their cost basis.

In any case, my Federal phone tax refund came to $143. If you are claiming only what the Feds suggest, you’re getting ripped off. They were going to give me a flat $30. I found my old phone bills and checked back one from each year. My Verizon long distance Federal tax was $2 a month. Cell phone Federal tax was $1. They pay interest, too. If you haven’t done your taxes yet, and you don’t have your phone bills, check online. Sprint has ALL of my phone bills going back to when I first purchased my cell phone. Verizon goes back a year. Your phone company will probably have something similar. Get back a little of your own, since this tax was established to pay for the Spanish-American War, and, well, I’m pretty sure we finished paying for it a long, long time ago.

This is a perfect lesson in why the government should be reined in. Once they get a tax on the public, they never, ever, ever let it go. The Feds fought this for YEARS before finally losing the battle in court. This is a perfect example on why the government needs to keep its hands out of our pockets, its nose out of our business, and its laws out of our bedrooms (I mean YOU, Georgia).

I chose the e-file option for my Federal taxes and did NOT let them take it out of my refund (for another $13, no thank you). If my refund gets here by April 1st, it’s going to help ease the financial squeeze from being laid off in December. Now that my new job is kicking in, so are the paychecks, but they’re (argh!) monthly. On the other hand, can’t wait until I get March’s check sometime in April. At long last, I can buy that mp3 player I was going to get with my 2005 refund. I really want to be able to play my CDs in my car, but it’s a Jeep. I’ve never bought a CD player for it. I make cassettes. I suspect anyone who checks out my car for things to steal is puzzled and disgusted when they see my cassette tapes.

Hey. It’s a soft top, and nobody’s slashed the windows to steal what’s inside it yet. It pays to be out of synch with the world, sometimes.