Personal posts page 57

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Finally finished my taxes and got everything mailed. Always a relief with a tinge of worry that I did something wrong. I’m getting money back for the first time in years, and was able to pay this years first quarter estimates with over-payments of last years estimates. This was due to me making less than previous years, but it did feel good to not have to deal with the estimates.

Except, of course, for Cleveland, part of CCA. CCA makes you, with the way the form is set up, subtract your over-payment from the whole year estimate and then pay a quarter of the remainder. Even though my over-payment was more than my estimated quarterly owings, I still had to mail in a check. It’s like a penalty for over-payment. And if I instead took my over-payment as a refund and then payed the real quarterly estimate, they have separate mailing addresses for returns that have refunds and returns that have payments. Not sure what I should do when one return is both. Confusing. Which is a common problem with city taxes. They always seem to have things that are vague and confusingly worded, set up differently than federal and state, and there isn’t the software guidance or countless web articles, posts, and answers to help that there is for federal and, to a lesser extend, state.

As I say every year: Next year I should probably pay an accountant to help me with this stuff.

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Feeling worn out after spending somewhere near five hours this evening between:

  • breaking down and burning sticks and other wood from previous tree / branch / bracken removal and dead-fall
  • scooping dog poop

The start of a busy weekend.

Tax worries again

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This past night I worked on my taxes, a stressful endeavor. I am an independent contractor, which has made things way more complicated than they used to be. I’ve been using the Free File program to use online applications for filling out taxes for years now, usually using TurboTax or H & R Block. They abstract from the forms and walk me through everything, and often provide help when I’m confused, but they can sometimes be worded confusingly. I just do the best I can. The biggest problem with the abstraction is that everything is trapped in this interface, so it’s hard to review it yourself and make sure everything is right.

Every year I worry that I’ve done something wrong, and this year is no exception. Since becoming an independent contractor, having to pay estimated taxes, I don’t really get a “return”, either applying my over-payments to next year or often having to pay additional. This year, though, I have a rather large over-payment, more than enough to pay my first quarterly estimates for 2016. That worries me. I’ve made a fair amount less than last year, so it may be right, but I’m still unsure. I’m going to sit on it and come back to it another night, see what I can do to review it.

Another thing I do every year is say that next year I’m going to work with an accountant. Every next year I wait until it’s too near tax time to comfortably figure out how to do that. I don’t really know how that works or what it would cost. It’s more of a consultation and review of how I’m doing the taxes myself that I need. Maybe next year. We’ll see.

I Ohio voting in democrat primary

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Today, “I Ohio voting”. I got in just about at the last minute. This time, for the first time ever, I took a party ballot for voting in a primary. I dislike the two-party system and how limited our choices are with effectively two not-so-dissimilar options. I think regardless of who is elected, more things that I dislike will come to pass politically than things I like. I don’t really want my name associated with either of the large, powerful parties that control this country. However, I kinda like what Bernie Sanders brings to the table, as compared to the other options. He was an independent for a long time, and still has that feel, at least as much so as a candidate can in this political environment. He’s down, but not out, so I figured I’d give him a tiny bit of help with a vote.

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I feel as if my mind has grown more cloudy and gray as I’ve gotten older. When I was younger, I had ideas coming to me all the time. I was able to take in new things easily, understand things, connect things. I was more idealistic. The future seemed more open. Reality, the mundane operations of going to work, paying bills, cleaning, taxes, all the adult things have taken focus. Life has always been a tunnel, but now it seems a more narrowly defined tunnel. It seems hard to make any headway toward anything that seems like real progress.

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Listening to some music, I thought it quite powerful, that it presented some important truth of the world. Then I thought that some others might not find it as such, but may find some other music powerful that I do not. “Everybody finds their own truths,” I thought, as I had many times before. Truths in everything: music, lyrics, statements, tweets, books, posts, articles, shows, scenes, thoughts, choices, situations: anything.

Toby Now

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My roommate has been out of town this week for work. It’s been me and the dogs. I got to work from home a couple days so I could feed them. Normally when I work from “home”, I actually work from the library, because my roommate doesn’t like me working from home. The dogs have been mostly good, though as usual they can be a bit demanding for attention.

Bought myself a few things earlier this week. Got my first ever electric razor (Phillips-Norelco PQ208). I’ve only used it once, but it seems like it’s going to speed up my shaving experience and make it more likely for me to do. Also, since I usually let my blades get rather dull before buying new ones, it will be less painful. It’s just a travel one, so it cost around as much as a 5 pack of blades for my former razor, the Mach 3.

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