TAX TIME

Although I was an accountant, I've always hated taxes.  I despise the random and ever-changing nature of the rules as promulgated by the millionaire lawyers in the Congress and state assemblies as they fiddle with social policies under the guise of paying the government's bills.

That said, I've always done my own, as a point of pride, I suppose.  And I figured after the complexity I faced last year with the estate, this year would be a piece of cake, but the reverse has been true.  Now I don't use commercial software, just Excel.  I have the various transactions in an annual ledger, and a connected file with the various interactions and calculations for taxes.  While checking this file against the forms every year is time-consuming, it means I actually have to read and understand every line.  No skimming.  So I really understand the forms each year, and don't have to rely on the 'Block-heads'.

But, the first annoying thing was that I had to reset the file to use a 1040 this year, due to having capital gains transactions.  And those really complicate the tax computation itself.  The 1040 instructions for computation methods cover several pages, with lots of ". . . if line 15 and 16 are both gains . . ." and " . . . if there is an amount on line 19 . . ." driving choices of which table or worksheet to use, all to save a few bucks from the capital gains tax rate.

Probably the biggest shock, however, was that I can use Schedule A again.  Ever since paying off my mortgage some years ago, I haven't had enough items to exceed the standard deduction.  But now that I'm filing single, the standard deduction is rather smaller, even with the bump I get for being over 65.  My property taxes, although modest by New Jersey standards, are enough to bring the Schedule into play.  With associated forms, my return is now nearly 10 pages long.  I really do hate taxes.