For my readers that may live in The Near Abroad, we here in Baja Canada find ourselves in the midst of tax preparation season.
I say "season" because - based on how many incoming documents you may have - it really is a period of time rather than short event. The opening of the season - not celebrated nearly as much as that of something like Deer or Abalone season - starts on 01 January at the close the old year and will come to an end on or about 15 April, when the grinding of teeth will stop, when mental preparation for next year's tax season will begin. Suddenly, the race is on to gather all the documentation required to file one's taxes.
If one has an employer, the appropriate form (W-2) must be issued by 31 January. Other forms or information (some institutions no longer offer the forms themselves if you fall below a certain amount) can be ferreted out on the monthly statements or find themselves issued in a timely manner.
And then, there are the remaining forms. Or as I have come to call them, "The Usual Suspects".
There are unifying factors around The Usual Suspects. They are all companies that are virtually based - there is not a brick and mortar location that you can go in. They all deal with electronic sorts of money in one form or fashion.
And they are all terribly bad about providing their required forms.
Two companies - one for the small personal investment account I hold, one for the very small amount of remaining Crypto I hold - managed to make their forms available around the middle of the month. The other - the repository for the Brave Attention Token, or BAT - just managed to create theirs this past Tuesday for me (14 March for those counting along on their calendars).
This strikes me as a bit ridiculous. Everything is electronic now. It literally just running the algorithm and generating the forms or spreadsheets - I do this at work on a daily basis. It seems like it should be the sort of thing that could completed on January 2nd. And yet, 2.5 months later, the last piece of paperwork comes crawling in.
I have noted before that the BAT - given for looking at advertisements in the Brave browser - has actually worked out for me in that it allowed me to purchase Amazon gift cards which I then turned into books as quickly as possible. But the value of the BAT has fallen in recent months; last year when I wrote the article it was worth approximately $1 (more or less); it now sits squarely at $0.23. So now it a) takes longer to get to that treasured $25 gift card level and b) makes it a lot less worth my while to deal with the inconvenience of a delayed tax filing to get that last piece of paperwork.
To be fair, now that I have the documentation and reverse engineered the calculation, I can get to the same number (on January 2nd, as it turns out) so next year in theory that should not be an impediment - at the same time, I am someone who wants all my documentation in place before I submit something (having to revise a submitted tax return, at least in the US, is a great way to get moved to the back of the line). So I will either have to stop collecting back, live with what will be potentially a minor non-impacting calculation and file, or continue to wait.
Supposedly one of the big benefits of the InterWeb revolution was that information was going to be available quickly and seamlessly, especially for the those companies that saw the InterWeb and technology as "the next big leap in human (de)evolution". It might be worth it to those companies to consider that it is not just delivery of one part of the service but every part of the service that makes something revolutionary. Otherwise, it just becomes another annoying thing to deal with and give consideration to why one is doing it in the first place - after all, people adopt what works for them, not what they struggle with.
We have all of our documents ready to be submitted to our accountant, save one. One bank claims they already sent the interest payment statements out, but we have yet to receive ours. We have gone twice to institution to have a hard copy printed out - the person responsible for that is 'out of the office'. Grrrrr - why do we bank with these guys ?
ReplyDeleteBanks seem to be one of the biggest offenders - once upon a time it was a 1099-INT regardless, now it is is only if you seem to hit a certain threshold. I printout the statement with the previous year's interest, but the documentarian in me is horrified - again, generated by a computer anymore, so I do not understand the reluctance.
DeleteThe state manages to mail its tax forms to me BEFORE Christmas and has for several years, yah, still use paper, want to give USPS some business.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how quick something can happen when ultimately a cash return back is involved.
DeleteWe have used a software for many years, but part of the reason is that our taxes were more complicated. They are getting less complicated every year, so it does make me think about trying paper again one year.
It is getting sloppier out there, isn't it? I don't have much to gather in terms of tax documents, but that Ingram Spark makes me figure the numbers out for myself seems extremely unprofessional. Unfortunately, if there's no motivation to change, change is unlikely to occur.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, it is. Which is surprising to me if for no other reason that such documentation would make tax return review and tax auditing a great deal easier because of the standard forms.
DeleteTo my comment to Nylon12 above, it makes me more interested in seeing what I can do to reduce the amount of paperwork I have incoming, not expand it.
After I retired I did taxes for AARP for 6 years. Prior employment required that I be able to read and decipher tax returns of all kinds. Read tax returns with the in's and out's of donating a Rembrandt to a museum and multi thousands of acres of land to organizations. Unless you own a business or are donating millions and you just want to spend money for each years new software AARP does it free. Probably at the library. With a tax code this year that is over 82,000 pages it's really just easier to let someone with all of 2022 newly written laws already in their software than have someone sit at the kitchen table with a calculator. Remember that all the tax that is written is done by Congress.
ReplyDeleteTerrifying to think I may almost be at the point that I would qualify for AARP (although free tax software is a useful benefit). Our taxes so far are pretty non-complex (if anything, I have complicated slightly by some of my activities trying crypto) and indeed, having up to date software is a very useful thing.
DeleteTrust me they are your name, address and birth-date and all literature ready to go prior to your big day. But their tax service is free to anyone. No age requirement. I've done taxes for 18 to 92.
Deletehave not are
DeleteThank you for the information!
DeleteI already have our refund for both state and federal in my bank account. I have always tried to file the first week of February after several people I know became victims of fraudulently filed tax forms on their behalf. It made their lives afterwards a lot more complicated that I want mine to be and the best way to combat it seems to file your taxes before the fraudster does. Fortunately for me, all the info I need it mailed to me by the end of January or I can easily compute it with my record keeping.
ReplyDeleteI remember the days of doing it by hand and hope to never go back to it. I disliked having to do it in pencil and then rewriting it in ink. I hated having to double and triple calculate everything to make sure it was correct and I hated making copies and mailing everything out of the post office because I couldn't mail it with a stamped envelope. For the cost of the software (after deducting it from my taxes due), it is well worth it even if my taxes are fairly simple. I also like that any questions I have are easily answered with a few clicks of a mouse button. What if scenarios are also easily accomplished and undone.
P.S. I try not to get refunds but it is so hard to do with my wife's highly variable salary. This year I missed on both marks so got refunds. I prefer to owe without getting into penalty territory so I can take my sweet time filing taxes.
Ed, in the not so long ago past I did exactly the same thing as you did - pretty much the second week of February, I filed. Now, getting the requisite paperwork seems to be an effort as noted above.
DeleteThe what if scenarios are indeed a benefit, although at this point there is not much "what if" as our income is stable - or has been to this point.
I have been sideswiped once or twice by large amounts owed due to self employment or stock sales so I overcompensate in my withholding at this point, knowingly. Yes, I am giving the government the benefit of my money, but there is an intellectual edge in knowing that I am getting money back. Also, it has been helpful in that a chunk of money can easily be set aside for a specific project (like, for example, a new roof, which needs to happen this year).