When your bird is broken will it bring you down

[austin_dern]

I suppose I ought also keep up my tradition of reporting my uninteresting tax situation. I filed. e-filed, actually, courtesy of TurboTax. I still feel a little odd using software to calculate my taxes. It's not that I distrust it, particularly, it's just that I always had a feeling I was pretty good at forms --- I still think I am --- and I have so few forms on which to be any good at anymore. TurboTax does a decent enough job, and I really like the step-by-step approach of asking questions and offering explanation boxes. But it's going to take time to reach the Singaporean model where they do all the data-gathering and figuring and send me their calculations and a form to fill out if I think they got it wrong.

I ended up owing money again, a couple hundred to the Federal Government and nearly a hundred to the State. Yes, yes, I know, it's better than getting a huge refund because unpaid interest loan blah blah blah but I would prefer getting a modest amount of money back than going out. I'm fairly sure that I didn't get any vast reserves of funds from the interest on a couple hundred dollars in my savings account even over the course of a year.

One thing I had been doing, and that TurboTax last year and this encouraged me to do, was get money into my Individual Retirement Accounts. For that matter, it got me to open them. The rate of return on this hasn't been outstanding, but I admit I am getting a thrill from checking back every week or so to see how all these various little holdings are doing. That's just a matter of buying mild shares in various mutual funds, and selling off the holdings and rebalancing if the amount goes up by some tolerable amount. So if there is any system I suppose what I'm doing is trusting in the fundamental randomness of the money industry.

Trivia: In 1862, Cornelius Vanderbilt was assessed a 50 percent penalty on his income tax, presumably assessed because of his refusal to respond to inquiries about his income. Source: The Last Tycoon: The Epic Life Of Cornelius Vanderbilt, T J Stiles.

Currently Reading: Electric Forest, Tanith Lee.

(By the way, folks with Turner Classic Movies: Hot Millions is on at 10:30 am Eastern. You should see this, especially if you like the golden old days of room-filling computers.)

Comments

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

You might be able to get some money back (http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=107686,00.html) thanks to the IRAs - I'd guess it's a little more likely next year than this, anyway.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I do have some of that thanks to the IRAs; they reduced the amount I owed on, at least. (In fact, last year, they reduced the amount I owed enough that I wouldn't be at risk of penalty, which turned out to be a powerful motivator to getting me to actually put the things through.)

I suppose I really should have worked out how much I could have put as a last-year's-contribution to reduce the tax bill, and see how much I'd have to send to come out with a refund too. But that's a little too much work, and it's moot in two hours and fifteen minutes anyway.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

That's good news. My 401k certainly helped keep my tax relatively constant this year (I previously had a Roth 401k, which isn't deductible, but that's not an option at GameStop). As for the timing, you still have twenty-six hours; Emancipation Day doesn't count (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Day#Washington.2C_D.C.). (And, of course, there is always the possibility of extension, or the dreaded 1040-X.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, to me, the new employee's manual promulgated at work includes provisions saying what the rules would be if there were a 401k plan at work, but there isn't any and there's no plan to have one yet.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could point them towards some low-cost funds! Unfortunately, if you have a small organization, it may be hard to get a 401k provider that doesn't soak participants for fees.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, its small size is one of the company's major problems. Maybe the biggest one not actually attributable to the boss or the organizational scheme, really.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

You could note that a SIMPLE IRA (https://personal.vanguard.com/us/whatweoffer/smallbusiness/simpleira) or SEP-IRA (https://personal.vanguard.com/us/whatweoffer/smallbusiness/sepira) are other options, perhaps more suitable to a small company.

Organizations are a big headache! I would say never run one, but I think it's too late.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I was unaware of either option. Thanks.

I'm not convinced the company actually has organization, which is one of its problems, however amusing the consequences can be to people who don't have to deal with them.