On an unrelated note

I did my taxes today.
This usually isn't too, firgive the bad pun, taxing, even for my math-addled brain, but for some reason, the CA state return was just impenetrable for me. The problem, I think, was that I did a consulting gig at year's end. I had done the job before a few years ago, bt this time around, the company contracted us out to an independent agency who instead of issuing us W2's like we were their actual employees, gave us 1099's instead.

I had no idea that this would be so complicated. There must be hundreds of thousands of people in this country who earn money as independent contractors of some kind. Maybe they all pay someone else to do their returns. Otherwise, why wouldnt there just be a paragraph in the instructions telling poor schmucks like me how to deal with this. I mean, ther have to be more independent contractors (ICs) in the US than there are lottery winners, right? And there's a paragraph for them (the lottery winners, I mean). There have to be more IC's than innocent spouses of people who committed tax fraud, and yep, there's a paragraph for them . . .

Now lest you think I'm a complete moron, I was able to figure out my federal return after about an hour of surfing and only one call to my dad. The state return, however, was a completely different matter. I'm still not completely confident that I did that one right, but out the seven years I've lived here, I've gotten corrections from the state twice (I overpaid both times), and both of those times, I was sure that I had done everything correctly. So I don't have a lot of faith in my own sense of correctness when it comes to state tax returns. . . I paid what I think I owe, and the math part makes sense. I'm just not sure if I filled out the form right--not the tax form, but the schedule CA where you have to tell them where the extra money (the 1099 paycheck) came from.

The good news is that I should be getting a sweet check from the government (well, I say that fully aware that what I consider "sweet" with my graduate student poverty-line surfing wages is probably way less than what normal people with real jobs consider "sweet") Regardless, I can put a good chunk in the bank for the rainy day which will be next year's job market, and still splurge a little bit on myself!

I now get to imagine the myriad ways I can do such a thing. Of course, anyone who knows me will probably realize that this is basically the equivalent of giving me a gift card (I hoard them!), but there are worse things . . .