blargh, taxes

[edenfalling]

I just spent two and a half hours pickling my brain in tax information -- or, in other words, doing my homework for the Not the IRS training course. I actually already knew about, oh, 80 percent of it, simply because I have always done my own taxes and that involves a lot of careful reading through instruction booklets to make sure I'm not missing any obligations or credits. Since my employment situation has been variable over the past two decades, and since I do own some stocks/annuities/whatever, I have also had at least passing experience with some less common schedules and forms (*shakes fist at Schedule C*) and have never been able to use the 1040EZ. So there is some benefit in not being scared of weird and abstrusely-written stuff, because hey, if I can figure it out for my own use, surely I can figure it out for somebody else.

But the government isn't bothering to print out instruction booklets these days, so I have a feeling I'm going to need to download some .pdf files for my own use, and possibly print the whole shebang, punch holes in the pages, and make up two little cheat-sheet three-ring binders: one for federal and one for state. *sigh*

I have also been correcting my textbook glossary every time it defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and making notes of some confusing things (contradictory cutoff number values, for example) to ask the instructor about tomorrow. So hopefully even though I haven't printed out hard copies of IT-201 to do state copies of the federal case studies -- because we don't get blank copies in a workbook, and how cheap is that??? -- I will come across as prepared.

(I need to buy new ink for my printer. It is not happy with me right now. *deeper sigh*)

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Also, I wasn't able to do [thing x] at the health garage this evening because of computer programs that didn't want to cough up the reports I needed to print and distribute, so that part of my duties completely failed to happen. This is both annoying and slightly worrying, given that I need to keep making a good impression. I really want to get hired directly instead of as a temp; that would feel significantly more secure. (Also possibly I could get hired full time? I'd really like that...)

Comments

[branchandroot]

Good luck with all the job things! It sounds like the kind of preparation any boss would be pleased to see, so hopefully they'll be suitably impressed.

[edenfalling]

Second day of tax class went well, so yay. :-) It turns out that the lack of state forms is a known issue, so the instructor printed out approximately a zillion copies and told us all to take as many as we needed for the next set of case studies. Which of course means I will now have to fill out all those case studies, but eh, I will call it progress.

On the less good side, the health garage reports in question failed to exist for a second day in a row, so I left a note saying that I had opened the relevant program and the reports were not there, by way of proof that I have been trying to do the thing and it's not my fault that the thing is impossible to do. *sigh* Hopefully someone knows how to fix whatever the glitch is.

[rthstewart]

I do hope it all works out. Unemployment sucks. Temp work is, well, temp work and while I understand why employers do it, I really really HATE what it does to employees. (I'm on my 3rd temp secretary in 6 months).

[edenfalling]

Thank you. :-)

I have done temp work in the past, and in at least one of those cases I replaced a previous temp worker who... well, let's just say that judging by the state in which she left the desk, I did not have a high opinion of her. *sigh* I do try to do my best, as if I were a direct hire, but there's a sort of gnawing uncertainty to the whole business.

...I should ask somebody what the health garage's hiring forecast looks like for the remaining quarter of the year, and maybe also go remind the temp agency that I am willing and able to take on another temp job if it fits around my current job and the tax training thing (which will be done by mid/late October in any case).