It's that time again... TAX TIME! Okay. It's been tax time for a while now. But Val is a procrastinator. An accomplished procrastinator. Val is a procrastinator's procrastinator. Part of my problem this year is technology. Well, technology is a problem for me all the time. But THIS year, New Delly is unable to assist me with my tax returns.
New Delly operates on Windows 7 Professional. TurboTax has washed his hands of Windows 7. So I can't sit in the comfort of my lair, puttering around at my leisure, doing a bit of tax work each day until I'm satisfied that I can't do any better.
NOW I have to use Windows 10. I don't want to upgrade New Delly. That means HIPPIE will have to assume the duties of TurboTaxing. HIPPIE is a cheapie, off the shelf at Office Max when my old SHIBA died unexpectedly. HIPPIE is bare bones. But came with Windows 10. He has no CD/DVD drive! I prefer to get my TurboTax on CD. I had relegated myself to the idea of downloading it, but The Pony came to my rescue.
"Um. Mom. For a person like you... I think that would be hard. Why don't you let me get you a CD player to plug into your laptop, and you can order the TurboTax CD and use it like usual."
"YES! Do that for me!"
It's been here for over a month. On Sunday, The Pony is setting it up for me. At the kitchen table. I'm not hauling HIPPIE down those 13 rail-less basement stairs, finding extra room for him on my desk, and looking for electrical outlets under my desk. I will sit on an uncomfortable kitchen chair, with Hick's TV blaring from the living room, trying to ignore kitchen traffic, while punching in numbers without a keypad. At least HIPPIE has a cordless mouse that Genius bought me.
Anyhoo... I glanced at some documents I gathered on Friday night. One of them being The Pony's 1098T concerning his college scholarship. Due to spring semester tuition being billed during fall semester, but the scholarship being distributed spring semester to cover that bill... The Pony shows that he received a tidy sum of scholarship money in the spring, but applied none to tuition. I know. That's crazy talk. But that's how it goes. That info is reported to the IRS, and it's the same for many students whose universities report in that manner.
The only solution is for The Pony to file his own tax return (meaning that I do it for him) for this unearned income. He'll be fine. He only "unearned" a tad more than the standard deduction. So he won't owe much at all.
HOPEFULLY, The Pony will be doing his own taxes next year!
Genius was appalled at the tax process. He did it himself ONE year. Now he uses a tax service. I don't know what made it so hard for him to understand. TurboTax walks you though like a (non-creepy) crossing guard holding a kindergartener's hand to cross the road.
I am not looking forward to sitting on that hard kitchen chair.
Don't even talk to me about taxes...apparently I make too much. It's good to know I am loaded I did not know until I did my taxes this year. Next year I plan to be less wealthy!
ReplyDeleteWe also plan to be less wealthy next year! Hick has a plan...
DeleteI think both you and The Pony are doing each other a disservice. I agree a CD is probably a lot easier, but I think The Pony should sit there and talk you through the download/installation process with you writing down step-by-step maybe. That way at least you know you've done it once and can work it out again if you ever need to. I also think that you should sit there and talk The Pony through the whole "doing your tax" process, for his taxes not yours, with his memory, he'd remember it and be doing his own next year.
ReplyDeleteI miss having a CD/DVD drawer too. Even a lot of gaming machines don't have them, since a lot of gamers download their games these days. Or so I'm told. Maybe they all buy external CD/DVD players too.
Selfishly, I would rather The Pony GIVE me a fish than TEACH me how to fish! At least this year, while I'm having withdrawals from doing the taxes in my lair on my comfortable rolly chair.
DeleteI might have The Pony look over my shoulder while I file his return. It have very few entries! And he can see the process.
I have so many movies on DVD. At least I can still watch them on New Delly, rather than sitting in my OPC (Old People Chair), which is farther away from the big screen TV and loses visual quality through my weakening eyes...
This external CD player for HIPPIE was around $20-25 on Amazon. Not unreasonable. The only down side is the power cord, which is only about 4-6 inches long, and plugs into HIPPIE's side.
I have a confession to make. I have NEVER done taxes. I doubt I ever will. HeWho does them and if anything happens that prevents him form doing them, my youngest child will do them for me. She has always worked in finances and does them for her brother, too. She might yell at you about spending habits, but she will get the job done.
ReplyDeleteMy mom never did taxes. The year my dad was really sick, I did them. The next year she took them to an accountant. I have a sneaking suspicion that accountants use TurboTax or similar software. It's so simple, though time-consuming.
DeleteI miss not having a CD slot on my computer! It is not fair. Can he recoup that money he is paying for taxes?
ReplyDeleteWhen Genius built New Delly for me (he built the tower, but the monitor is a Dell), he included the CD player because I commanded him to.
DeleteHe refused to put in a 3.5 floppy disk drive, though. Looks like they're pretty cheap on Amazon, too! Not that I need one any more, thanks to Genius dragging me into the modern world.
The Pony can't recoup the tax money, because the scholarship is unearned income. He only has to pay less than $50, so it's not a big deal.
Maybe you should get a cushion for your chair and headphones for your sanity? Ranee (MN)
ReplyDeleteI put a folded towel on the chair. Headphones would make me think I was missing something important. Although today, the only distraction was The Pony clanging a few pans to warm his leftover pizza in the oven. He THOUGHT he was being quiet.
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