I've told you before that I do my own income tax. It's a pain and a lot of work. For the last 10 years or so I've been incredibly accurate as the micro Manager checks me. Before that I often made careless mistakes.
Today I received my income tax assessment. That's the piece of paper that tells you if you did things correctly or if they found mistakes. So a mistake could cost you more money or get some back.
Well today's assessment had good news. The balance was nil. Now usually when I see nil I file the assessment and that's the end of things.
Today one little note caught my eye. It said that I had a minute capital loss( less than $10.00) I had filed a small capital gain but no capital loss. So this gave me reason to look more closely at the assessment. I could not find out how they calculated a capital loss.
Then I noticed that they calculated my total income about $10.00 less than I had calculated. I checked net income . It was minutely less than what I calculated. Later on I found a line with a figure that was completely wrong. If I'd used their figures I would not have owed them one dime.
So after all this , they said I didn't owe them anything. I really don't know how the income tax department does addition and subtraction.
I'm not going to ask them about this situation. With friends like these who needs enemies. The next tax checker could use some voodoo math and want more money out of me.
Have you ever found the tax dept. to be inept with their math?
No, never! Pretty weird. I did spend 6 months trying to prove my claims when hubby had all his cancer appointments. (You can claim for those.)
ReplyDeleteOh I've been claiming health expenses and fortunately don't have very many.
DeleteOne year the IRS sent me a check for every bit of my withholding instead of the refund I was qualified for. I knew I would have to return the money so I called, and then had to spend an hour convincing them that they had made a mistake, not me.
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing. They'd never get it right if they had to come after you for any money.
DeleteI have found that when you get a big packet in the mail that you are being audited, and we have been audited twice. No fun. Once we owed more and once we didn't. They are always right and the tax payer is always wrong :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think they audit individuals but do look at businesses sometimes.
DeleteWe have accountants do our taxes, but Art sends them all the information and checks what they do. Unfortunately, twice now, they've made mistakes which was aggravating.
ReplyDeleteIf I have to work to organize all the paper I'd just as soon do it myself. If your tax is complicated then by all means hire an accountant.
DeleteWe've switched accountants so we'll see how it goes. It also turned out that our accountant in Hawaii costs more than half the one we were using in Chicago. Sheesh!
DeleteI never argue with the Tax office tho I know very well that I've overpaid my taxes on several years. The sleazebags never told me that I didn't have to include certain income which I did for several years in a row and thus paid more taxes. I only found out much later when it was too late to amend my tax returns.
ReplyDeleteYes, you don't have a long time to correct things . Too bad.
DeleteI have never had to fill in a tax return so what you are referring to is all very mysterious to me. In Britain if you are a public servant, the system does it all for you.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's what you pay the big bucks for. Here there are too many variations as some people have investments .
DeleteI hope not, I expect them to believe I might be wrong sometime
ReplyDeleteHere , if you're wrong they politely correct things and tell you about it.
DeleteI have HR Block do mine online which still requires me to do things though
ReplyDeleteI think that if I have to work to organize them, I might as well do it myself.
DeleteOur taxes could not be easier to do these days, now that we're retired and have limited income sources. We get our taxes figured and filed by the AARP volunteers at the Senior Center. It takes them less than a half hour to get it all done. They check for mistakes, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's good if you can set something up[ and then let volunteers help .
DeleteWith our complicated tax code it is a wonder that any taxes get accepted!
ReplyDeleteBusiness gets too many loop holes and then don't pay their fair share!
DeleteI have it done by an accountant. It'd be too much of a headache for me personally.
ReplyDeleteI find that people who can use the same accountant like getting their taxes done by an accountant.
DeleteI haven't come across math errors, but I will say they don't make it easy to argue against their assessment even when they are plainly wrong. Happened with my mom's return from last year. We are still waiting for resolution. Very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. They can take their sweet time.
DeleteOur tax system is so complicated, it's a wonder not everyone gets mistakes on their returns. My husband has been doing our taxes for years and so far everything has been fine. No errors.
ReplyDeleteSome of the language used is very much "accountant"
DeleteI had issues with payroll at work and ended up owing $2200 in taxes this year. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty tough on a rooky.
Deleteohh those taxes!!Here in norway it is pretty bad..we pay almost half of our pay at work to get what they call a democratic state..But no one knows where the money goes..and if you dont pay..they go to your bankacount and just take them..if you dont agree with them its ahell of a cause to get them back..wonderful Norway ohh well...thanx for sharing interesting post Red:)))
ReplyDeleteNope I now farm the whole business out to a pro and hope for the best and a good night sleep...:)
ReplyDelete