Amended Taxes

I don't remember when it was, but it was sometime over ten years ago when I first left the 20th century to file my taxes electronically.  The process was relatively easy, until the end.  On clicking the final button to file, I was given the an error that essentially said:  The IRS has received your filing but it can not be processed as your name and social security number do not match.  I'm quite sure I knew both of these.
I was at a dead stop without knowing if I was done filing or not.  There was no online help available other than a page saying that my name and social security number didn't match (Ahhhh that is what that means.  Helpful, NOT....).  Calling the IRS about this meant spending a looooonnnnggggg time on hold, meaning I never actually got help there either.
I returned to the 19th century and have stayed there.  I can hold a grudge forever so I don't see that changing.

This year was no different.  The forms don't change much year to year, so I only pull my hair out on any new things I've done to myself.  To be honest, I'm quite sure I sometimes get stuff in the wrong box or form, but often the intent in the background is clearer than the forms.  So as long as the final numbers work out, the IRS will leave me alone.

Unlike the Federal Government, the state has a very simple online filing system.  Why the IRS can't do this is controversial.  First, they could.  Tax preparation is big business with about $5Billion being spent at places like H&R Block.  Add in tax software like TurboTax and that amount can easily be doubled.  These industries lobby hard to keep the filing process difficult so they can keep making money.  It is quite scary, however, that people need help filling out the 1040EZ.  I'll end that commentary right there.
There has been talk for years about getting prefilled out forms from the IRS.  This is probably not as straight forward as it seems, and there is probably legitimate concerns that something will be missed resulting in paying too much, or too little.  But even if we could start with the single source of what has been sent to the IRS, the filing process could be much easier.

After filling out my paper forms, I quickly and easily finished my state taxes.  Only then did I find that one small 1099 form lurking in the pile of paper.
ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
Since my Fed filing was paper, fixing that was easy.  But now, the numbers don't match between the Federal and State.  Would the state come after me for that?  Would the state come after me for the trivial increase in my taxes.
As frustrated as it was to file amended taxes, it is much less frustrating than if I get called before The Man.  I figured out the increase to my state taxes, and completed an amendment to my taxes on paper forms.  Again, I may have gotten some numbers in the wrong boxes, but the end number was what it should have been.  If the state objects too much, they can fix it.
Then I faced another conundrum, I have a local tax which has numbers that do not match the Fed or State numbers, but the increase in tax from that one 1099 form was zero.  Zilch.  Nada.  Still, unmatched numbers may be a horror to some bureaucrat.  I ended up amending my local filing for absolutely no change in the bottom line.  Since again some boxes might not be filled out correctly, I suspect this may create some head scratching for the bureaucrat.
The sad thing is, the amount of extra cost to the state and local entities will far exceed the trivial increase in taxes.  Not my problem.

The other outcome of this exercise was that it was very plainly laid out how much taxes were taken from this very, very small 1099 (with apologies for the double superlative).  Because of the way the tax tables work, the Fed took 39% of it.  This number actually could have been zero, if the starting point was near the bottom of the incremental tax table amount.  The state took 6% of it and the stamps to mail it took another few percent.  Obviously, this income was not worth it for any of us, my incompetence not withstanding...

I suppose it is an academic question at this point, but I wonder if any of the tax entities would have come after me for the error of a very small missed 1099.  It certainly wouldn't be worth their time, but the principle might  be.
If nothing else, this year will be a good test of my theory that I'll be left alone as long as the bottom line is right.

See you at the audit.

Belated Edit:
I ended up using the wrong form for the amended state taxes.  They sent me the correct form, with very incomplete instructions as to how the already paid additional tax will be applied to the resent amendment.  I can only hope their records will tie this all together.
They also included some of the worst photocopies I have ever seen of the correct form.  I suggest they apply any additional tax I am paying towards a photocopier that creates legible copies.  I suspect that the trivial increase in the amended tax is already consumed in the filing and now refiling of it.
Bureaucracy at its finest!

The Comfort of Free TV

Several years ago, I donated to my local NPR station.  I do listen to NPR often and the local affiliate was at risk of disappearing, so I thought this was the right thing to do.  There were two outcomes to this.  One, the station was taken over by another NPR affiliate - while this did keep the station with similar programming, the truly local segments were no longer.  Two, that donation created voluminous junk mail asking for donations - I know this is the source since my name was misspelled and that misspelling now shows up on the resultant instant-recycling.
I once looked online to see what some of the NPR voices looked like as people - they look absolutely nothing like their on-air personalities and it has greatly affected my listening.  You just can't unsee that.

I don't currently pay for TV.  The cost is really hard to justify with the fact that, even when I did have satellite, I only watched a small number of the channels that I paid for.
I live in an area without any good options for unlimited internet access; streaming TV is also out of the question.  This leaves me with over-the-air television which means I am somewhat destined to know of many cultural phenomena only second hand.  I'll live with that.
Over-the-air television means I watch a lot of PBS.  Interesting shows will often show up while flipping, but there are only a few shows I target to watch.  My normal TV routine is currently being disrupted by the pledge week.
What I find most curious about the PBS pledge weeks - I think they happen about four times a year - is that PBS seems to get rid of their usual good and predictable programming, replacing it with a redundant clutter of rehash.  The strategy seems to be one of, "If you don't donate, we'll put more of this crap on..."
I don't know how many times I've flipped past Suze Orman oversimplifying personal finances during pledge week, or shuddered at the horror of The Big Band Years.
There is another possibility - I may not really be in PBS's market.  They want money from someone other than me.
PBS claims to be commercial free.  This is disingenuous.  You can call Subaru an underwriter of Globe Trekker, but Subaru is not handing out cash out of the goodness of their corporate soul - they want to sell more Foresters.

I still believe digital TV was a ploy by Michael Powell to kill free TV by limiting who has access to over-the-air channels.  It was possible to watch a fuzzy analog The Simpsons episode; it is impossible to watch a massively pixelated episode.  Mr. Powell's evil ploy was thwarted, largely because he did not envision what would happen in streaming media.
For those of us who can get a decent antenna TV signal, the result is more digital channels than we had analog ... sort of.

Many of these digital channels are quite redundant.  But they are often playing reruns from the late 70's to the 90's.  I'm surprised how some of these shows hold up after so many years.  Early Hunter (a show I loved in the mid-80's) is fun to watch when I'm in the right mood, but gosh did that show get bad in the later years.

Miami Vice is still good, but only in the context that, it in many ways, defined TV for several years.  The dialog is as over-the-top as the pastels are.  I was quite depressed that after watching a recent episode start-to-finish, the Ferrari never made an appearance once.  It is sad when the true star of a show is absent.

It is refreshing to see long lost episodes of Night Court.  Bull Shannon (Richard Moll) makes that show as much as Harry Anderson does.  I can only hope we'll get to see reruns of It's Your Move, but I won't hold my breath.

A few of the shows demonstrate absolute genius.  Newhart is as good as anything on TV now and I can't help but find the opening theme be unquestionably comforting.

I guess I should probably donate to PBS, but I really don't want the increased mail to recycle.  Maybe I'll just by a Subaru instead.  Do they still make the Baja?