2002-04-16 - 9:14 a.m.

Tax Time

Lately I�ve had other thing (yes, thing, not things) on my mind. I was touched that a few days ago Shells called insisting that she wanted to drive up from the Bay Area to spend some time with me. She also told me that people have been asking her about me � and people are worried that my condition is serious. It is chronic (and painful), but I won�t die from it.

Anyway, while talking to Shells Sunday evening she started to complain about taxes. SHIT! I totally forgot about mine, but shrugged it off, because I could do them over the phone like I did last year.

The Federal taxes took me about 30 minutes to do over the phone, and my refund will either amount to nice spending money in Europe or will cover most of the cost of my plane tickets. Next Wednesday I�ll find out from the doctor if I can go to Europe as planned.

Then I called and started on my California taxes. 15 minutes into the call I typed in my salary and �Sorry, you are not qualified to file a tele-tax. Goodbye.�

Fucking lame computer tax man. How come I can do the Federal form on the phone, but I can�t do the State form? Answer, tax laws are all written by a bunch of self serving upper class folks that put in loop holes. It happens that they put these limits on tele filling such that if you make enough money, you have to fill out the long tax forms. OK, that wouldn�t be bad � if the government would actually send you these forms.

So yesterday I had to get on-line and find the 68 page pdf file with the California tax instructions. OK, now here is the real complaint: the California tax form assumed that you filed a Federal 1040 or similar form. It instructs you to enclose a copy of those finished forms, but the Federal govt allowed me to do it all over the phone. So I didn�t have a 1040 to pull numbers from.

Instead I made them up (basically I filled in a bunch of zeros except for my salary, state tax withheld, and earned interest � all of which I got from my W-2 and 1099 forms). In the end I mailed the state literally pages upon pages of their crappy forms with tons of "-0-" written everywhere.

I don�t think California should assume that people will fill out a 1040 just because they want them to. Then again, maybe they�ll audit me, but I seriously doubt it. *rawr*

LISTENING TO: Diary of Dreams One of 18 Angels

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