3 things: income taxes, apartment leases, the woes of ancient plumbing

[edenfalling]

1. After procrastinating for truly ridiculous amounts of time, I finally buckled down and did my taxes on Saturday. The federal government owes me just under $900, and the state of New York owes me $25. This is almost exactly the same result I got last year, which suggests that I forgot to adjust my withholding.

Then again, the only way I could possibly adjust my withholding would be to go back to the formula I was using in 2008, which ended with me owing both jurisdictions about $100 in April. I think, all in all, it's probably better for me to end the fiscal year with a refund rather than a bill -- it's a painless way of forcing myself to save a bit of money.

I may also technically have screwed up my state tax return a little bit. You see, I have this investment fund thingy that my parents set up when I was born (and which I have been duly ignoring ever since, on the theory that it's best to treat it as imaginary money until I retire) that seems to have been playing in foreign investments this year since the fund paid something like $3.00 to some other tax jurisdiction. So far as I can tell, I did not need to do anything about that for the IRS (they don't seem to care unless you are playing with significantly more money, or unless you itemize deductions, which I don't), but New York created some new impenetrable rule about foreign investments this year, which, after staring at it for half an hour to no avail, I decided to ignore on the basis that three dollars does not count. *shrug*

New York instituted a bunch of other tax procedure changes this year, the first of which is very sensible and long overdue in my opionion: namely, instead of making people copy out all the information on their W-2 forms by hand onto a special New York state form, they just asked taxpayers to send in the official state copy of the W-2. Finally, sanity! (If a W-2 is good enough for the IRS, I see no reason it should not be good enough for Albany.) The other change is to force people into figuring all taxes using whole dollar amounts rather than calculating things out to two decimal places to account for change; all the zeros were actually pre-printed on the tax forms. *blinks* I happen to like calculating with the full amounts, pennies and all, but whatever, their forms, their rules.

-----

2. Yesterday I made a verbal agreement with my landlords to extend my lease for another year. I asked to also get a written copy of the lease with the applicable date adjustments, so Mr. H will presumably mail that or drop by with a copy sometime in the next couple months.

-----

3. Our old plumbing problems continue at the smoke shop. The same pipe that cracked open in November sprang another leak today, though at least this one was a moderate drip rather than a high-pressure spray. Awesome maintenance guy came by, shut the valves, cut out the faulty fixture, and put in a replacement.

Then I ran the hot water in the bathroom sink for five minutes straight to get all the suddenly knocked-free rust out of the system. The water was coming out opaque orange-brown at several points, like saturated paint. Blecch. But it eventually ran clear again.

Comments

[branchandroot]

Yeah, tax laws are just bizarre. But three bucks totally doesn't count. It's possible there's even a law to that effect, though there are probably others that say the opposite. Whee!

We finally got the faucet off my own plumbing problem yesterday, only to discover that it was so corroded that the pusher arm of the faucet-puller had been /driven into the stem/ by the force required and wouldn't come out. So we're getting new faucets after all, and it's time for a plumber to come and haul this stuff out of the wall. Plumbing, eh.

[edenfalling]

New York state taxes are always interesting to do, not least because there are vast swathes of the return I can skip over because I don't live in NYC or Yonkers. (The number of special debits and credits applied to residents of those cities is absurd to nearly Kafka-esque levels.) The main parts of the tax return are quite simple -- basically you copy the information from your federal return and then do a few state adjustments -- but then you hit the things like S-corporation investment rules and... *shakes head* I know why those things exist -- because of Wall Street and all the financiers in the city -- but for the average person, they are as impenetrable and irrelevant as, I dunno, a detailed set of instructions for temple worship in Uruk.

Plumbing is of the devil. I am completely convinced of that. *nods firmly* Good luck getting yours sorted out!

[monkey5s]

I did my taxes Sunday night/Monday morning. I was able to file electronically for both my state (Ohio) and school district (administered by the state) taxes- and get a refund of around $100 from the state and $4 from the school district. I did my federal on paper because I owed them $43, and was expecting to file my town taxes electronically- but it turned out I owed them, too! The very weird part of that was, the town tax is a straight 1%, I live and work in the same town, so there's no "refund part of the tax to make up for having to also pay tax where you work", and I have never, ever, had to pay them before. Most baffling.

And FYI, if you want to change your withholding so that the feds aren't earning interest on as much of your money while they're holding it for you, you could always check the Withholding Calculator at the IRS website.

[edenfalling]

Wow, Ohio taxes sound even more complicated than New York taxes (and New Jersey taxes, where I remember the tax code being so sloppily written that one year I figured my taxes three times, got three separate answers, and could have justified all of them if audited). I don't have to pay separate school district or town or county taxes -- though I do have to identify my county and school district on the state return, so perhaps it's simply handled by the bureaucracy instead of by the taxpayer. *shrug*

I am actually okay with giving the government a loan, because if I got that money dribbled out via weekly paychecks instead of in a lump sum as a tax refund, I am pretty sure I would spend it all on stupid little things over the course of the year. This way, I get it all at once and have no excuse for not immediately dumping it into my IRA. :-)

[monkey5s]

Oh, yeah, individual areas get to charge different income taxes in Ohio, by means of levies (for the school district) or the dreaded WE SAY SO (the town). So I have four taxing authorities to satisfy.

At the beginning of 2013 I started on my retirement (early), and this means that the town will no longer take money from me (since they don't consider 1099-R income to be taxable wages). But I have to see about the school district- not sure if they will make me file quarterly estimated (since I don't get that withheld from work now). My retirement is willing to do withholding for the federal and state, so that's OK. And, since the retirement just barely covers my expenses, if I get a part-time job to supplement my income, I will face a WHOLE LOT of quarterly estimated filings.

Truly exhausting, for those of us who are... arithmetically-challenged.

[cherokee1.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Plumbing. There are all sorts of little drips and leaks around here.
I am guessing it might be because it is the element I am least equipped to handle.

Taxes are so much easier here in Texas.
No state tax, no extra paperwork.
I do not envy you, and totally understand the procrastination.

Glad you have a place to live that you like!
C

[edenfalling]

Most of the NY state tax form is pretty simple and self-explanatory -- you just copy information from your federal tax return and do a couple state adjustments -- but the presence of NYC and Wall Street means that the instructions for dealing with certain types of investments get... um... complicated, shall we say. (Also, never, ever, ever move to NYC or Yonkers. I swear to god, half the NY state income tax form consists of special debits and credits and regulations that apply only to people who live in the city. It is ridiculous.)

Plumbing is of the devil. This is my firm opinion and I doubt anything will change my mind. *wry*