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23920. anomie - 4/10/2008 12:03:02 PM

Ms No,

I'm not kidding. I know ot sucks, but it makes perfect sense. Each year we deduct the total amount of state tax withheld as if that's the amount of state tax we actually pay. But some of us get some of that money back in the form of a refund, meaning in effect that we took a deduction we didn't deserve. In order to "correct" for the amount we over-deducted, we clain the refund as income and pay tax on it the following year. Then we AGAIN deduct the current year's withholding - all of it - and start the cycle over.

I'm astonished that the person who does your taxes doesn't explain this to you.

23921. thoughtful - 4/10/2008 2:32:28 PM

anomie, that's the way i understand it as well. We were in a situation with tax refunds for a couple of years and it took a couple of years to get it to all go away.

23922. judithathome - 4/10/2008 2:42:47 PM

Spent an hour in our "terror room"...the laundry room...while tornado sirens went off all around us from 3 am until 4. We listened as the rain and hail and wind pelted the house.

I guess we survived okay. I read Keoni and Harley an article from the newspaper about the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Kept them all calm and relaxed.

23923. thoughtful - 4/10/2008 2:46:37 PM

scary stuff...glad you're ok.

23924. anomie - 4/10/2008 3:04:32 PM

Ms No, just to clarify: Yes, it is money earned in 2006, but you didn't pay tax on it in 2006. You deducted it. Therefore, your refunded amount is now taxable in 2007 (the year in which you receive it). The good news is that you don't need to pay a penalty for deducting too much in 2006. You simply claim the refunded amount as ordinary income in 2007.

23925. anomie - 4/10/2008 3:07:49 PM

Judith, we don't have much extreme weather here in Vegas, but come to think of it, my little laundry/utility room would be the best shelter just in case. Thanks! I'll stash a flashlight and a book in there!

23926. arkymalarky - 4/10/2008 3:21:20 PM

That stuff is hitting here now and Mose is on a bus full of school kids and won't be back until noon. Another group of kids is on a much longer trip--overnight--through horrible weather. Makes me a nervous wreck. I don't stress having to sit in the hall with a bunch of kids, but on the road withthem in bad weather is very scary.

I couldn't decide about Mazie, then decided she'd be safer outside. It's working out to be a hellatious storm season.

23927. Ms. No - 4/10/2008 5:13:56 PM

Anomie,

Thanks, that does make sense, but now I'm a little disturbed about why my tax person didn't explain this. I mean, I probably wouldn't even have noticed had she not made such a big deal about it.

23928. anomie - 4/10/2008 7:30:57 PM

Makes me wonder if something else was being questioned.

23929. thoughtful - 4/10/2008 9:19:00 PM

Only thing I can think of is if she didn't itemize her deductions...

23930. wonkers2 - 4/10/2008 10:36:54 PM

We've had good luck with TurboTax. Of course good records are the key to income tax preparation however you do it.

23931. judithathome - 4/11/2008 2:58:15 PM

Learned yesterday that Leslie's company was going pay the ten grand for the hospital from an emergency fund...with no stipulation that it ever be paid back! It was such a relief...Leslie was prepared to withdraw money from his 401k and they said, no, hold on to that and use this.

So they called the hospital to see where to send it and the business office said never mind, we don't need it.

Can you believe that?

23932. thoughtful - 4/11/2008 4:03:31 PM

Unfortunately i can.

A buddy went into the hospital and refused to pay his part of the bill until he received an itemized bill... the hospital accountant said, we won't release an itemized bill to you until you pay it!

23933. wonkers2 - 4/11/2008 5:20:52 PM

Yes, I can believe it. Krugman on Health Care

23934. robertjayb - 4/11/2008 7:16:22 PM

A thoughtful (pun intended) article on universal coverage in the New England Journal of Medicine...

Universal Coverage One Head at a Time — The Risks and Benefits of Individual Health Insurance Mandates

23935. wonkers2 - 4/11/2008 8:21:52 PM

That was an interesting article. I wonder why the best approach would not be to extend Medicare in stages to the entire population over a ten year period, starting with the most vulnerable people first--children, the unemployed, the poor. As a participant in Medicare, I think it works quite well. Extending Medicare gradually would eventually rid the health care system of the health insurance company parasites.

23936. jexster - 4/12/2008 5:53:36 PM

I take my irresponsibilities as a citizen seriously, so I have been investigating tables at which I can appropriately celebrate Bush's passing and restore my own consumer confidence.

In persuing menus, I've noticed several dishes which seem to crop up everywhere.

This from Mlisse, Santa Monica (2 M stars) is typical:



    Egg Caviar, Poached Egg, Lemon-Chive Crème Frâiche,
    American Osetra Caviar
    $20 Supplement
    $45



    $35

    Japanese Kampachi, Erinigi Mushrooms, Red Miso, Winter Citrus Segments
    $23

    Seasonal Vegetable Salad, Burrata Cheese Pomegranate Vinaigrette,
    Roasted Mushroom Emulsion


PS Wonkers...Mlisse has a swimp and abalone concoction

23937. thoughtful - 4/16/2008 3:03:55 PM

What's the scoop with J@h and her son...any word?

23938. Max Macks - 4/16/2008 8:07:35 PM

tornado in Texas?

23939. iiibbb - 4/17/2008 8:33:51 PM

OK

So my wife still hates it here. She never wanted to come here. She thinks I should never have applied to this job even though I really had no choice because the job market in my field is pretty poor at the moment; plus, there was a reasonably good job here for her.

We have also had the added stress of dealing with a miscarriage (at least the plumbing works). She's worried about her aging parents; we are not nearby either set of them.

Needless to say, the past 18 months have been very stressful and tumultuous. Certainly the bright spot is that if all of this shit hasn't busted us up, it's going to be hard to do. We are obviously committed to each other.

Part 2- Three weeks after I accepted this position the people that had been funding her made like they wanted to hire her. The problem was that I already made a commitment to this job and couldn't really back out of it. She very very very grudgingly committed to 1-3 years. She applied to that job anyway, but because of some administrative screw up they had to readvertise... now they're going to do it again, and she's going to apply again. If she gets it she's pretty much told me there's no way she's going to turn it down which puts me in a pretty difficult spot as it usually takes 3 years for a researcher to really make much of a new position. I'm still in my probationary period. So if I give this up now it could potentially make it very hard for me to find something else. There is also not very much of what I do up where her potential job is... but, I am willing to make this move if it is that hard for her here.

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