Let The Lords Of COBOL Protect Us
Tuesday, 8 April 2014 01:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsMonday night while UConn was winning the basketball game, we finished our 2013 taxes. It went pretty well this year. Oh sure, there are some complexities with the HSA Health Savings Account, but mostly straight forward. Hell, I didn't even buy and download TurboTax until Saturday afternoon.
Had to do some digging. Going electronic with banks means you don't always get papers for things like 1099-INT statements. But we've got a handle on the usual things we itemize and keep good track of charitable contributions during the year. For the first time I did not check the box for the Presidential election financing -- Congress and the White House are messing with the fund and I don't have to like it. Pb-thbbt!
With my long hospital stay, the writing business did nothing in 2013, as opposed to 2012 (DW) (LJ). We'll do better in 2014.
TurboTax suggested it might take two days for the IRS to acknowledge our Federal E-file. In reality it took about 45 minutes.
The hardest part of filing was putting a new HP96 black cartridge in the HP Deskjet 6980. It's a very good professional printer we've had a long time, but Mrs. Dr. Phil discovered last year that it can get fussy when you change cartridges. It's a known problem and there's a workaround solution on the Internet. But it's a little annoyance.
We don't E-file Michigan. We could, but TurboTax would charge $24.95 -- four sheets of paper and a check and a stamp cost a helluva lot less. In TY 2012, Michigan got rid of a lot of allowable charitable deductions, especially public TV and radio, so we went from getting a modest refund to paying a small amount. Bastards.
Anyway, taxes are done.
Dr. Phil
P.S. The blog post title is a play on the old Battlestar Galactica line. Uttered in tribute to the IRS computers, which very well may be running COBOL -- COmmon Business Oriented Language, I believe is the acronym.
Had to do some digging. Going electronic with banks means you don't always get papers for things like 1099-INT statements. But we've got a handle on the usual things we itemize and keep good track of charitable contributions during the year. For the first time I did not check the box for the Presidential election financing -- Congress and the White House are messing with the fund and I don't have to like it. Pb-thbbt!
With my long hospital stay, the writing business did nothing in 2013, as opposed to 2012 (DW) (LJ). We'll do better in 2014.
TurboTax suggested it might take two days for the IRS to acknowledge our Federal E-file. In reality it took about 45 minutes.
The hardest part of filing was putting a new HP96 black cartridge in the HP Deskjet 6980. It's a very good professional printer we've had a long time, but Mrs. Dr. Phil discovered last year that it can get fussy when you change cartridges. It's a known problem and there's a workaround solution on the Internet. But it's a little annoyance.
We don't E-file Michigan. We could, but TurboTax would charge $24.95 -- four sheets of paper and a check and a stamp cost a helluva lot less. In TY 2012, Michigan got rid of a lot of allowable charitable deductions, especially public TV and radio, so we went from getting a modest refund to paying a small amount. Bastards.
Anyway, taxes are done.
Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth Crossposted on LiveJournal
P.S. The blog post title is a play on the old Battlestar Galactica line. Uttered in tribute to the IRS computers, which very well may be running COBOL -- COmmon Business Oriented Language, I believe is the acronym.
