A couple years ago I filed for an extension, not realizing that I would owe fees/interest if I didn’t pay what I didn’t know I owed by the original deadline. So now I know… if I need to file an extension, send the IRS an amount that will cover what I think I might owe by April 15th.
@troy Hey, I did that one! Needed the extension because I was broke and played fast and loose with my writing income, immediately learned that an extension doesn’t help that even a little bit.
I didn’t screw up but I did step into a glue trap around our foster/adopted child and getting proper credits after it took the state almost 2 years to get a SSN issued. That process took months and a lot of long phone calls and paperwork to resolve.
I did realize the folly of indiscriminate use of Amazon Vine for anything and everything I thought was mildly interesting.
@walarney don’t worry, they track it for you. Look in your vine account page under tax questionnaire… They will 1099 you for the fair value of the items you received. Sometimes this is inflated so you have to judge whether it’s worth it when requesting items.
They email you in like February that it is ready, but you have to go get it, I don’t believe they actually send you a copy.
@djslack@walarney
I’ve always considered my Vine purchases to be basically a steep discount. Effectively I’m paying my net tax rate for anything over $600 a year. This is still cheaper than buying the item myself. I have found that I use their search bar for anything I’m intending to buy anyway. Effectively I’m paying 15-20% of the value on things that I would have purchased anyway. And I’ve gotten some amazing s*** there (including the fire pit that’s on my front porch, a 3D printer, a double din radio head unit for our older RV (with a backup camera, a huge improvement), and a buttload of yard tools.
But, I knew someone who didn’t file for several years because she made very little money.
She went back to school and was getting a ‘real’ job and we had a friend who was an IRS trainer back in the day who told her to file all those back returns, even though they were years late (nothing actually owed) before she got a good pay check.
Not financial advice (obviously) but I have found that as long as they’ll owe you money and not the other way around, they don’t seem to come after you for not filing on time…
@jouest Even if they think you owe them money, it can take them a while. This reminded me that I got a big scary audit letter some years ago because somewhere someone entered a 1099 for $1300.00 as $130000. I got that letter about two years after the filing in question. It was really easy to straighten out though - from what I remember one phone call took care of it.
@djslack yeah I had a similar 1099 problem and I spent about two weeks psyching myself up for call center hell and was floored when someone just answered when I called and was super helpful.
Bought an electric car last year without studying the details about tax rebates, but hoped I’d get something. Nope. Among other disqualifications, if purchase price of used car is over $25K, you get zilch. nada.
@walarney I have read and reread and then back again those rules. Then looking at what is available and repeat. Still have not pulled the trigger on a new or new to me though. Lots of speculation that the rebate will be pulled entirely that makes me think if I do buy I should not plan on it.
How do you like it? Is it what you expected?
I have an older electric car and absolutely love it. I wish I had someone local that could repair it for me. I think I found someone far away but weighing the costs before going that way too. I hate car shopping!
@speediedelivery i mostly needed a car one day and thought, if i have to buy something, why not try an electric. Got a 2022 ID.4. Never buying gas for it is great, and it has enough range that I only ever charge at home. (I never noticed before what a nuisance it is to always have to check if there’s enough gas and take the extra time to fill a car when there’s not.)
Really only being able to take one long trip in a day means it still can’t be my only car. And VW admitted they made a mistake using only touch controls and are switching back to physical knobs and buttons going forward.
It’s quick, but i wouldn’t call it sporty – drives like a heavy car (which I’m sure it is). And the regen braking is a little mushy and unpredictable – takes some time to get used to. It’s also so quiet that you often don’t realize how fast you’re going.
@walarney I found that 98.9% of my driving fit within the range of a charge. Occasional change in plans based on range but it was a perfect grocery getter and ride to work. It was cheaper to rent a car or ride with someone and chip in for gas on the handful of times I needed to drive past range. My car was zippy easy and to drive. Also in its favor was all the rebates at that time. It paid for itself in just gas savings in around 3 years. I drove it for 10 years before it started having problems.
I am driving an older gas vehicle for now. My current driving needs are less than 100 miles a week average so paying an arm and a leg for a vehicle is making me crazy. I do need to upgrade pretty soon but ugh.
@speediedelivery@walarney Id definitely go electric if you can charge at home. Still rebuilding the metro for 40 mpg though. Crossing the Rockies in an econo box is… Interesting… And I love a manual transmission/miss the saturan. And am never going to pay for a new car.
Technology connections on YouTube has some good analysis about his electric car but I can’t seem to find the newest one. Here’s an older one
This is what I was looking for on his second channel
#1 : Was told by tax preparer that topping off IRA contributions would turn federal tax owed into refund. Did so but somehow forgot to tell preparer, resulting in having to pay unexpected late-tax bill together with a resubmission that did result in a hefty refund, well they say 15 minutes of elevated heartbeat helps clear the cholesterol out of the system.
#2 : Gave IRS wrong bank account # one year resulting in bounced charge and fees, !!!@$@!!! Plaque buildup in my arteries is apparently relatively low, though.
#Not me, not my dog : An artistic friend found an artistic CPA who was able to deduct ALL their expenses resulting in a tax bill of zero for many years, but then discovered that getting a mortgage is tough when data shows an income of zero for many years. Also, consequently Social Security is even less generous even if holding out until 70 is an option. On the positive side, their coronary calcium scan shows ZERO plaque buildup!
Dropped out of high school and made lots of money during the dotcom boom. Squandered it all because I was a stupid, naive kid. Kept thinking I’d deal with back taxes later and eventually ended up on a 433 paying back thousands of dollars a month for something like a decade to pay it all off.
Now I’m obsessive about money and taxes. My spreadsheets are my babies.
@aetris@mikey Hey, I worked on a joint SW project with Citrix back in the early 90’s. (Interesting for while, but the project was ultimately cancelled.)
@aetris@macromeh Depending on how early '90s, that may have been before my time when Citrix was doing the OS/2 product Multi User. I joined in '96 when things were starting to heat up with WinFrame (the custom implementation of Windows NT) and right before Microsoft threatened to revoke our license to the Windows source code. It was such an exciting product to work with.
I got audited…twice. The first time it wasn’t my fault, and the second time it was only kind of my fault (but not really.) The first time was when 1099s were new, and an agency mistakenly combined five years worth of income, dramatically changing my tax bracket. It took nearly a year, endless phone calls, and finally, in the 11th hour, a gifted hacker who found the mistake buried in a database. I was one day away from having to go to tax court and pay a huge penalty. Whew! The second time I inherited a bunch of stock but the major bank that managed the account somehow lost most of the valuations. Since it was an inheritance I didn’t owe any tax anyway, but I couldn’t document it. I got a letter from the IRS claiming that I again had way more income than I really did. I filed the information I had on a revised return, but I didn’t have everything. Then I called the Taxpayer Advocate. (This is a wonderful office that hopefully still exists!) I explained that I didn’t have the information because [insert name of huge bank here] never gave it to me. There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, then she said ‘oh’ like she knew what I was talking about. Obviously I wasn’t the only one with this problem. I never heard from the IRS again on that one. The audit just disappeared. Wow.
Any advice on finding/thinking about finding a tax lawyer? Really a real estate tax lawyer to assist ageing family figure how to manage/ think about home sales etc. Thank you! Don’t want to have a story later to post here about serious mess up.
@edsa We went through this about a decade ago just using the local lawyer who had been handling my parents’ legal affairs for years. Unless your situation is really complicated (and ours was a bit) I don’t think you need a specialist, you just need a trustworthy lawyer who can refer you to a CPA if you really need one.
Lol. I can’t think of one. My dad used to set up his “tax table” every year. When they had to be done in paper. And go to the library every year to go review the current tax law changes. I still have tax forms with his hand writing from like 2002 when I started working as a teen.
I know he navigated some stuff for my grandmother’s and grand aunt. There were boxes of tax documents when he passed.
its easy for me to adjust withholding to hit it on the head but basically I just have a job and a 401K/IRA/HSA/$400 of stock dividends. So I just run the numbers a few times a year and make sure I’m gonna hit them.
Most of the consumer basic tax deductions also seem simple. Student loan. Child tax credit. Environmental.
The IRS knows who they should be going after. They just aren’t allowed to
I’ve always found it accurate within about $200 but it’s completely dependent on your input data. And like I said my financial situation isn’t too complicated. I don’t run a business or anything. It’s designed for normalish workers
Past couple of years been doing it last minute… Which means using Intuit TurboTake or H&R Blockheads and paying both for the service and the taxes they say I owe. (Maybe I was the blockhead all along.)
@pakopako I just finished doing federal taxes with H&R Block software. Sadly, because I don’t trust them with my tax data, I won’t efile with them. It’s paper until I can file online (I don’t qualify to use the IRS’s online system) directly with the IRS instead via a data-scraping-for-profit third party. Fortunately, I can file online with Massachusetts.
@ItalianScallion@pakopako you could of course just print them off and a stamp is way cheaper than $9.99… I’m a cheap bastard. But… That one I… Just it’s done
@pakopako@unksol Yes, I printed mine out and sent them in, but because I had to pay a substantiql amount, I used certified mail to make sure I could prove I sent them in on time in case something got lost or misdirected along the way. That cost $9.96.
@ItalianScallion@pakopako@unksol We e-file Federal (free with the tax SW we use).
State (OR) charges for e-file (so stupid! ), so we print and mail it certified. Once, we got a penalty notice for late filing state, but with the receipt for (on time!) certified mail as proof, they dropped it. So, worth it.
@macromeh@pakopako@unksol Yep, that’s why certified mail, Fedex, etc. is worth the money! My state (Mass.) lets you direct file, i.e., fill out the forms online from their website, for free, but with anything else you have to pay for involving state and local government, you have to pay the credit card fee if that’s how you pay. It makes the employees’ lives easier to do it that way, presumably, but I still send a check to save on the fee. Why is it legal for only the government and fuel dealers to make you pay the credit card fee? (piss, moan)
@ItalianScallion@macromeh@pakopako lots of small businesses make you pay the credit card fee. I mean you’re always paying it they have to build it into their margins. But here they’ll call it a cash discount. It has to be paid. Most of my cards are at least 1.5% cash back so… Meh.
Technically the people getting screwed are the ones always paying cash at the businesses that don’t give a discount… Whatcha going to do though
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@macromeh@pakopako @unksol That’s interesting. Last I checked, in Mass. no business is allowed to add a credit card charge on top of the sale price, except gas stations and maybe fuel oil delivery companies. Businesses can, but rarely do, offer a cash discount. Practically speaking, it’s the same out of your wallet, but the difference is in the advertised price: I think a business has to advertise the highest price and refer to the cash price as a discount. I get that. Otherwise you could end up with a surprise charge when you pay with a credit card.
What I don’t understand is why gas stations aren’t covered by that law. (and also why they’re allowed to price in tenths-of-cents which up until the first “gas crisis” decades ago were low enough that tenths made a difference in large sales, but that’s another gripe–I mean topic.) I get the government thing. There must be something about reliable or exact budgeting which you can’t do when you don’t know how many transactions will be with a credit card.
@ItalianScallion@macromeh@pakopako I guess some of our gas stations do advertise the cash/credit price on the sign. The posted price everywhere else is the price. But small shops, especially gun or liquor store will have a discount for cash posted behind the register.
@ItalianScallion@macromeh@pakopako@unksol We have convenience store stations that knock off a few cents per gallon if you pay cash inside. They’re hoping you’ll be tempted to buy some pop or candy as well.
@OnionSoup My wife also does our taxes (using tax software). She is better/has more patience with the fiddly details than me. I do look them over before we file (I actually caught an error while perusing them last year - fixing it saved us some $$.) Works for us.
I did a final review yesterday before declaring my taxes done and found a costly mistake: I thought I took a distribution from a mutual fund in my IRA, but instead I withdrew money from a taxable account. Doh!
@OnionSoup You mean like lots of countries do? Maybe we could also make healthcare simple… like lots of countries do. And then we could make measurement simple… and use the metric system as our standard like all other countries except Liberia and Myanmar.
@OnionSoup technically this is a loan the central and local government asks for each year. April just happens to be the time they double down and reevaluate if they can borrow more.
@OnionSoup@pakopako I don’t know. I always considered the money you might get back in a refund to be a loan. What you have to pay is something you pay as a cost of living in a society that, for example, provides certain things for its people… except for healthcare.
Oh, absolutely! I once missed the tax deadline entirely because I mixed up the dates, thinking April 15th was later in the month. Ended up with a penalty, which wasn’t fun at all. A friend of mine tried to deduct his dog as a “home security system” on his taxes—needless to say, it didn’t fly with the IRS! It’s a good reminder to double-check everything and maybe invest in some tax software or professional help if things get complicated.
I’m going on Marshara’s comment being from AI (as is likely the only other comment they’ve written). I just can’t believe anyone would remotely think the IRS would be ok with a dog as a home security system. Are home security systems even tax-deductible? I could see maybe a security system on a home office…
Idk. The latest ive waited is like 2/15. And I’ve always been right just based on end of year statements within a dollar. I fill it out in January based on statements. Do a quick check when I have the last one. Update a few dollars and send it
A couple years ago I filed for an extension, not realizing that I would owe fees/interest if I didn’t pay what I didn’t know I owed by the original deadline. So now I know… if I need to file an extension, send the IRS an amount that will cover what I think I might owe by April 15th.
@troy Hey, I did that one! Needed the extension because I was broke and played fast and loose with my writing income, immediately learned that an extension doesn’t help that even a little bit.
The what now?
You just made me panic about what day it is.
I didn’t screw up but I did step into a glue trap around our foster/adopted child and getting proper credits after it took the state almost 2 years to get a SSN issued. That process took months and a lot of long phone calls and paperwork to resolve.
I did realize the folly of indiscriminate use of Amazon Vine for anything and everything I thought was mildly interesting.
@djslack Yeah don’t panic, the 15th isn’t until tomorrow…
@djslack Wait… what’s this about Vine? I just started using it. Does Amazon send you tax documents, or am I supposed to track and report it?
@walarney don’t worry, they track it for you. Look in your vine account page under tax questionnaire… They will 1099 you for the fair value of the items you received. Sometimes this is inflated so you have to judge whether it’s worth it when requesting items.
They email you in like February that it is ready, but you have to go get it, I don’t believe they actually send you a copy.
@djslack @walarney
I’ve always considered my Vine purchases to be basically a steep discount. Effectively I’m paying my net tax rate for anything over $600 a year. This is still cheaper than buying the item myself. I have found that I use their search bar for anything I’m intending to buy anyway. Effectively I’m paying 15-20% of the value on things that I would have purchased anyway. And I’ve gotten some amazing s*** there (including the fire pit that’s on my front porch, a 3D printer, a double din radio head unit for our older RV (with a backup camera, a huge improvement), and a buttload of yard tools.
Not I
But, I knew someone who didn’t file for several years because she made very little money.
She went back to school and was getting a ‘real’ job and we had a friend who was an IRS trainer back in the day who told her to file all those back returns, even though they were years late (nothing actually owed) before she got a good pay check.
She did pay a tax guy to do it for her
Not financial advice (obviously) but I have found that as long as they’ll owe you money and not the other way around, they don’t seem to come after you for not filing on time…
@jouest Even if they think you owe them money, it can take them a while. This reminded me that I got a big scary audit letter some years ago because somewhere someone entered a 1099 for $1300.00 as $130000. I got that letter about two years after the filing in question. It was really easy to straighten out though - from what I remember one phone call took care of it.
@djslack yeah I had a similar 1099 problem and I spent about two weeks psyching myself up for call center hell and was floored when someone just answered when I called and was super helpful.
@djslack @jouest Wow. I wonder if that’s going to be the case from now on, though …
@djslack @jouest @Kyeh well… Biden hired a bunch. Trump is firing them and more. Wouldn’t hold my breath for better customer service in government.
Bought an electric car last year without studying the details about tax rebates, but hoped I’d get something. Nope. Among other disqualifications, if purchase price of used car is over $25K, you get zilch. nada.
@walarney I have read and reread and then back again those rules. Then looking at what is available and repeat. Still have not pulled the trigger on a new or new to me though. Lots of speculation that the rebate will be pulled entirely that makes me think if I do buy I should not plan on it.
How do you like it? Is it what you expected?
I have an older electric car and absolutely love it. I wish I had someone local that could repair it for me. I think I found someone far away but weighing the costs before going that way too. I hate car shopping!
@speediedelivery i mostly needed a car one day and thought, if i have to buy something, why not try an electric. Got a 2022 ID.4. Never buying gas for it is great, and it has enough range that I only ever charge at home. (I never noticed before what a nuisance it is to always have to check if there’s enough gas and take the extra time to fill a car when there’s not.)
Really only being able to take one long trip in a day means it still can’t be my only car. And VW admitted they made a mistake using only touch controls and are switching back to physical knobs and buttons going forward.
It’s quick, but i wouldn’t call it sporty – drives like a heavy car (which I’m sure it is). And the regen braking is a little mushy and unpredictable – takes some time to get used to. It’s also so quiet that you often don’t realize how fast you’re going.
@walarney I found that 98.9% of my driving fit within the range of a charge. Occasional change in plans based on range but it was a perfect grocery getter and ride to work. It was cheaper to rent a car or ride with someone and chip in for gas on the handful of times I needed to drive past range. My car was zippy easy and to drive. Also in its favor was all the rebates at that time. It paid for itself in just gas savings in around 3 years. I drove it for 10 years before it started having problems.
I am driving an older gas vehicle for now. My current driving needs are less than 100 miles a week average so paying an arm and a leg for a vehicle is making me crazy. I do need to upgrade pretty soon but ugh.
@speediedelivery @walarney Id definitely go electric if you can charge at home. Still rebuilding the metro for 40 mpg though. Crossing the Rockies in an econo box is… Interesting… And I love a manual transmission/miss the saturan. And am never going to pay for a new car.
Technology connections on YouTube has some good analysis about his electric car but I can’t seem to find the newest one. Here’s an older one
This is what I was looking for on his second channel
@speediedelivery @unksol my Justy suddenly developed a large hole in the engine block while on the freeway. That’s how I wound up buying the VW.
#1 : Was told by tax preparer that topping off IRA contributions would turn federal tax owed into refund. Did so but somehow forgot to tell preparer, resulting in having to pay unexpected late-tax bill together with a resubmission that did result in a hefty refund, well they say 15 minutes of elevated heartbeat helps clear the cholesterol out of the system.
#2 : Gave IRS wrong bank account # one year resulting in bounced charge and fees, !!!@$@!!! Plaque buildup in my arteries is apparently relatively low, though.
#Not me, not my dog : An artistic friend found an artistic CPA who was able to deduct ALL their expenses resulting in a tax bill of zero for many years, but then discovered that getting a mortgage is tough when data shows an income of zero for many years. Also, consequently Social Security is even less generous even if holding out until 70 is an option. On the positive side, their coronary calcium scan shows ZERO plaque buildup!
@aetris mmmm yea you kinda need to have paid into social security to qualify. So that sort of creative accounting is probably. Ill advised.
Dropped out of high school and made lots of money during the dotcom boom. Squandered it all because I was a stupid, naive kid. Kept thinking I’d deal with back taxes later and eventually ended up on a 433 paying back thousands of dollars a month for something like a decade to pay it all off.
Now I’m obsessive about money and taxes. My spreadsheets are my babies.
@mikey fun fact: this is why Will Smith agreed to do Fresh Prince
@jouest Had I even an ounce of the Fresh Prince’s charisma
@mikey Ouch!
@mikey So, um, just curious HOW you made lots of money during the dotcom boom?
@aetris I got a job at a little startup called Citrix. Stock options were bananas back then.
@aetris @mikey Hey, I worked on a joint SW project with Citrix back in the early 90’s. (Interesting for while, but the project was ultimately cancelled.)
@aetris @macromeh Depending on how early '90s, that may have been before my time when Citrix was doing the OS/2 product Multi User. I joined in '96 when things were starting to heat up with WinFrame (the custom implementation of Windows NT) and right before Microsoft threatened to revoke our license to the Windows source code. It was such an exciting product to work with.
@aetris @mikey Yeah, it was with their OS/2 product (1993-ish when I was still at Intel).
I got audited…twice. The first time it wasn’t my fault, and the second time it was only kind of my fault (but not really.) The first time was when 1099s were new, and an agency mistakenly combined five years worth of income, dramatically changing my tax bracket. It took nearly a year, endless phone calls, and finally, in the 11th hour, a gifted hacker who found the mistake buried in a database. I was one day away from having to go to tax court and pay a huge penalty. Whew! The second time I inherited a bunch of stock but the major bank that managed the account somehow lost most of the valuations. Since it was an inheritance I didn’t owe any tax anyway, but I couldn’t document it. I got a letter from the IRS claiming that I again had way more income than I really did. I filed the information I had on a revised return, but I didn’t have everything. Then I called the Taxpayer Advocate. (This is a wonderful office that hopefully still exists!) I explained that I didn’t have the information because [insert name of huge bank here] never gave it to me. There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, then she said ‘oh’ like she knew what I was talking about. Obviously I wasn’t the only one with this problem. I never heard from the IRS again on that one. The audit just disappeared. Wow.
Any advice on finding/thinking about finding a tax lawyer? Really a real estate tax lawyer to assist ageing family figure how to manage/ think about home sales etc. Thank you! Don’t want to have a story later to post here about serious mess up.
@edsa We went through this about a decade ago just using the local lawyer who had been handling my parents’ legal affairs for years. Unless your situation is really complicated (and ours was a bit) I don’t think you need a specialist, you just need a trustworthy lawyer who can refer you to a CPA if you really need one.
@aetris
Thank you.
@edsa Should have asked the ? on my thread re tax questions. Could have given you some useful info. If still looking for info, ask me.
Who is the tax person I can ask a question to on here? It’s not something I need an immediate answer for, it’s for next year.
@Star2236 It’s @Felton10
https://meh.com/forum/topics/tax-questions-answered-for-free-or-at-least-an-attempt-to-do-so-3
@Kyeh @Star2236 Yeh you better ask it quick. At 78 you never know what my cognitive abilities will be from year to year.
Lol. I can’t think of one. My dad used to set up his “tax table” every year. When they had to be done in paper. And go to the library every year to go review the current tax law changes. I still have tax forms with his hand writing from like 2002 when I started working as a teen.
I know he navigated some stuff for my grandmother’s and grand aunt. There were boxes of tax documents when he passed.
its easy for me to adjust withholding to hit it on the head but basically I just have a job and a 401K/IRA/HSA/$400 of stock dividends. So I just run the numbers a few times a year and make sure I’m gonna hit them.
Most of the consumer basic tax deductions also seem simple. Student loan. Child tax credit. Environmental.
The IRS knows who they should be going after. They just aren’t allowed to
IRS withholding estimator FYI
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator
I’ve always found it accurate within about $200 but it’s completely dependent on your input data. And like I said my financial situation isn’t too complicated. I don’t run a business or anything. It’s designed for normalish workers
No matter how bad you screw up your taxes, you can’t get into worse trouble over taxes than Al Capone.
Which, btw, I think it’s still true, you can’t get into trouble for filling ill-gotten gains on your income tax form, but you can for not filing them.
@OnionSoup Artificial Intelligence Capone?
@ItalianScallion Well… just like AI, Al Capone supposedly had hallucinations. (had advanced Syphilis at the time of his death).
Past couple of years been doing it last minute… Which means using Intuit TurboTake or H&R Blockheads and paying both for the service and the taxes they say I owe. (Maybe I was the blockhead all along.)
@pakopako I just finished doing federal taxes with H&R Block software. Sadly, because I don’t trust them with my tax data, I won’t efile with them. It’s paper until I can file online (I don’t qualify to use the IRS’s online system) directly with the IRS instead via a data-scraping-for-profit third party. Fortunately, I can file online with Massachusetts.
@ItalianScallion @pakopako I’ve been using OLT for a few years. Federal is free. State is 9.99. never had an issue.
It’s ridiculous you can’t just fill out the document and submit a PDF online. You used to be able at one time
@ItalianScallion @pakopako you could of course just print them off and a stamp is way cheaper than $9.99… I’m a cheap bastard. But… That one I… Just it’s done
@pakopako @unksol Yes, I printed mine out and sent them in, but because I had to pay a substantiql amount, I used certified mail to make sure I could prove I sent them in on time in case something got lost or misdirected along the way. That cost $9.96.
@ItalianScallion @pakopako @unksol We e-file Federal (free with the tax SW we use).
), so we print and mail it certified. Once, we got a penalty notice for late filing state, but with the receipt for (on time!) certified mail as proof, they dropped it. So, worth it.
State (OR) charges for e-file (so stupid!
@macromeh @pakopako @unksol Yep, that’s why certified mail, Fedex, etc. is worth the money! My state (Mass.) lets you direct file, i.e., fill out the forms online from their website, for free, but with anything else you have to pay for involving state and local government, you have to pay the credit card fee if that’s how you pay. It makes the employees’ lives easier to do it that way, presumably, but I still send a check to save on the fee. Why is it legal for only the government and fuel dealers to make you pay the credit card fee? (piss, moan)
@ItalianScallion @macromeh @pakopako lots of small businesses make you pay the credit card fee. I mean you’re always paying it they have to build it into their margins. But here they’ll call it a cash discount. It has to be paid. Most of my cards are at least 1.5% cash back so… Meh.
Technically the people getting screwed are the ones always paying cash at the businesses that don’t give a discount… Whatcha going to do though
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@macromeh @pakopako
@unksol That’s interesting. Last I checked, in Mass. no business is allowed to add a credit card charge on top of the sale price, except gas stations and maybe fuel oil delivery companies. Businesses can, but rarely do, offer a cash discount. Practically speaking, it’s the same out of your wallet, but the difference is in the advertised price: I think a business has to advertise the highest price and refer to the cash price as a discount. I get that. Otherwise you could end up with a surprise charge when you pay with a credit card.
What I don’t understand is why gas stations aren’t covered by that law. (and also why they’re allowed to price in tenths-of-cents which up until the first “gas crisis” decades ago were low enough that tenths made a difference in large sales, but that’s another gripe–I mean topic.) I get the government thing. There must be something about reliable or exact budgeting which you can’t do when you don’t know how many transactions will be with a credit card.
@ItalianScallion @macromeh @pakopako I mean. That’s just the federal gas tax…
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=10&t=5
There may also be state gas taxes, we don’t have one. But others states may.
@ItalianScallion @macromeh @pakopako I take that back our state gas tax is 35 cents so higher than average
@ItalianScallion @pakopako @unksol 40 cents/gal state tax in Oregon, plus some cities and/or counties add their own tax.
@ItalianScallion @macromeh @pakopako @unksol MUCH higher in Europe though.
@ItalianScallion @macromeh @pakopako I guess some of our gas stations do advertise the cash/credit price on the sign. The posted price everywhere else is the price. But small shops, especially gun or liquor store will have a discount for cash posted behind the register.
@ItalianScallion @macromeh @pakopako @unksol We have convenience store stations that knock off a few cents per gallon if you pay cash inside. They’re hoping you’ll be tempted to buy some pop or candy as well.
Did my kids taxes for them with TaxSlayer because it’s free and they have zero complications.
My wife does mine as she is a tax wizard in payroll. (She forgot to do the kids before going on vacation with her sister which is why I did).
@OnionSoup My wife also does our taxes (using tax software). She is better/has more patience with the fiddly details than me. I do look them over before we file (I actually caught an error while perusing them last year - fixing it saved us some $$.) Works for us.
I did a final review yesterday before declaring my taxes done and found a costly mistake: I thought I took a distribution from a mutual fund in my IRA, but instead I withdrew money from a taxable account. Doh!
@ItalianScallion fun with wildly complicated tax code complete with zany consequences!
I have a crazy idea… why not make taxes simple, and the government just takes the right amount out in the first place.
@OnionSoup You mean like lots of countries do? Maybe we could also make healthcare simple… like lots of countries do. And then we could make measurement simple… and use the metric system as our standard like all other countries except Liberia and Myanmar.
Ha! Who am I kidding?
@OnionSoup technically this is a loan the central and local government asks for each year. April just happens to be the time they double down and reevaluate if they can borrow more.
@OnionSoup @pakopako I don’t know. I always considered the money you might get back in a refund to be a loan. What you have to pay is something you pay as a cost of living in a society that, for example, provides certain things for its people… except for healthcare.
Oh shit what day is it.
@jouest More than a day late and more than a dollar short?
Oh, absolutely! I once missed the tax deadline entirely because I mixed up the dates, thinking April 15th was later in the month. Ended up with a penalty, which wasn’t fun at all. A friend of mine tried to deduct his dog as a “home security system” on his taxes—needless to say, it didn’t fly with the IRS! It’s a good reminder to double-check everything and maybe invest in some tax software or professional help if things get complicated.
I’m going on Marshara’s comment being from AI (as is likely the only other comment they’ve written). I just can’t believe anyone would remotely think the IRS would be ok with a dog as a home security system. Are home security systems even tax-deductible? I could see maybe a security system on a home office…
Idk. The latest ive waited is like 2/15. And I’ve always been right just based on end of year statements within a dollar. I fill it out in January based on statements. Do a quick check when I have the last one. Update a few dollars and send it