… with a whole day to spare.
I did the federal forms last week using fill-in PDF forms from the IRS web site. This year you can save your changes to the fields! Then I did the WI state in pencil and paper. This is the first year I have qualified for Earned Income Credit, amazing considering that I was a single parent and often between jobs. I set the paperwork aside a week ago today, mainly to clear table space for soup and salad with some friends.
Yesterday I got working on taxes again, and went to the WI state site and downloaded the Homestead Credit form and instructions and the Rent Credit form. The building manager was happy to fill that out and I ended up gaining even more than from the Federal EIC (you need to have a dependent child to get EIC for WI taxes).
All that made for a fat envelope to send to Madison when I finished around 3 PM. Since the weather was too nice to stay in, I bundled up and went to the post office. We have to submit copies of federal forms along with state forms. It turned out to be 60¢ postage.
My custom has been to wait until April 15 to take the forms to the post office and enjoy the ambiance. As I don’t often go out after dark, I miss most of the excitement near midnight.
Well, at least it is done. Now I have numbers for how bad a year 2004 has been financially. Part of the Homestead Credit procedure was add a note to explain how you were able to pay rent that was higher than your income. It is called operating at a loss or dipping into your retirement savings early.
I don’t think things are getting better for Baby Boomers such as myself. The reason many of us aren’t on the street is because we have been dipping into savings, selling off posessions or even worse running on credit card debt. Last week I made a comment on IRC that perhaps the best bet for income for me was to write a how to or Dummies book on how to be poor graciously, but would need to do it soon before others totally run out of assets.
