The Yearly PITA

I've spent the last 2 days in the grips of the Yearly Paperwork Monster........

The W-2s came in late last week so I sat down on Friday and I did the PA state taxes.
Compared to the Federal taxes, PA's are easy-peasy.
Here's basically how it goes....

1. Write down all your income.
2. Write down the total of all your taxable interest and dividends from investments.
3. Add those 2 numbers.
4.  Multiply the number in #3 by 3.07%.
5.  If your employer didn't take out 3.07% and give it to us already, do some subtraction and write down what you still owe us for doing NOTHING for you.
6.  Write us a check for the number in #5 and mail it.
7.  Consider yourself lucky we don't take more.

See?!  Easy peasy.....

PA has no exemptions and deductions(except for a very few rare ones that we don't qualify for).
There are no tax brackets and graduated scales either.
Tell us what you made, send us 3.07%.
Done.

And you don't even have to snail mail or electronically file in most cases.
You simply call them on the phone and file that way.....of course, you DO have to mail them a check or give them your credit card number eventually.

So PA is ready to be filed and we owe them another $51 besides what they took out already during the year.

Saturday I sat down and  did all the calculations to figure the charitable contributions, local/state/real estate taxes paid for 2013.  If it's more than the Standard Deduction of $12,200 for our married/filing jointly status, we itemize, but if it's less than $12,200, you are better off just taking the SD and saving yourself some aggravation and wear and tear on your sanity.
Unfortunately(or should that be fortunately?), I get to challenge my sanity this year.

So this week I get to write up all the final paperwork for the Schedule A & B.   Fun! lol

I also sat down on Friday and figured out my final Net income from my gross Blog Revenue, eBay, Etsy and Amazon sales in 2013.
You are now reading a blog written by a "hundredaire".....you know, like a millionaire but a lot poorer.  ;-)

I started filling in the 1040 and am now on page 2(home stretch!) and awaiting the 1098-T forms from 3 colleges(Daughter attended 2 different ones in 2013)so I can see if we get the 2 educational credits and/or offsets from Form 8863 the year and how much they will be.

I went ahead and figured the rest of the numbers without the Tuition/Educational credits/offsets and we will be getting a refund hovering in the $1K neighborhood at least.  Could rise to almost $2K depending on how the 1098-Ts affect the calculations.
Rah......

So until those 1098-Ts come in I'll keep myself busy by doing the.....yes, I am going to say it!......the FAFSA.

I don't have to do one for #1 Son this year since he graduated in 2013(hoorah!)but instead, I get to do one for #2 Son(boo hiss!)who will be starting college in 2014.

It's all just a big game of chicken for us really, since we are so RICH(have retirement $), the FAFSA always tells us we are required to pay the entire college bill the child might have....and usually it tells us we are required to pay even MORE than their anticipated bill!  How is that possible?LOLOL

So we fill it out and wait for them to tell us our kids qualify for nothing.....except loans, EVERYONE qualifies for those evidently.  8-(
So I dutifully fill it out even though it's pointless.

The Daughter has dropped out of college(temporarily)this semester and has no clue whether she will return for the 2014-2015 year so I guess I need to fill one out for her this year, just in case she does drop back in, in the Fall.
But where they want to know what school to send the information to, what the hell do I put? lolz

Possibly 3 more years of this FAFSA crap and then I am done forever.
Whatever.....it really doesn't matter.

Maybe today I'll do something FUN like......figuring out a menu for this coming week and scrubbing a few toilets........or having a couple of drinks.

Guess which one will win out?  ;-)

Sluggy