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A Taxing Day
Feb. 4th, 2023 04:22 pmToday I bit the bullet and did our income taxes. I have TurboTax, but it still took about five hours or so of fiddling with various pieces of paperwork, especially inasmuch as the most complicated one was from a brokerage that claimed I could import the (long and detailed) information directly into TurboTax but could not. After several tries, I gave up and just entered the summary information, which means that I also have to mail a copy of the details on paper to the IRS after they accept the return.
While I have a rather large amount of expenses that could nominally be considered charitable deductions, including expenses related to chairing Westercon 74 but that were not reimbursable by the convention, they weren't enough to justify itemizing deductions. The standard deduction has always been best for me except one time many years ago, and even then I ended up being reimbursed for part of what I'd deducted, and so I had to learn about how to fix that. (By reporting it as miscellaneous income the following year, that being easier than filing an amended return, and either method is allowed.)
In the end, the paper loss I took when I sold my grandparents' property for less than its appraised value offset most of the gains realized when we liquidated some investments to pay part of the cost of buying the East Lot, so it worked out in the end. (For any tax geeks who know I sold that property a couple of years ago: capital loss carryover was my friend.) I ended up owing $325, but that's not enough to trigger a penalty, and the payment isn't due until April 18 and I could schedule the payment like any of the other bills I pay online. It could have been worse.
While I have a rather large amount of expenses that could nominally be considered charitable deductions, including expenses related to chairing Westercon 74 but that were not reimbursable by the convention, they weren't enough to justify itemizing deductions. The standard deduction has always been best for me except one time many years ago, and even then I ended up being reimbursed for part of what I'd deducted, and so I had to learn about how to fix that. (By reporting it as miscellaneous income the following year, that being easier than filing an amended return, and either method is allowed.)
In the end, the paper loss I took when I sold my grandparents' property for less than its appraised value offset most of the gains realized when we liquidated some investments to pay part of the cost of buying the East Lot, so it worked out in the end. (For any tax geeks who know I sold that property a couple of years ago: capital loss carryover was my friend.) I ended up owing $325, but that's not enough to trigger a penalty, and the payment isn't due until April 18 and I could schedule the payment like any of the other bills I pay online. It could have been worse.
