In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 372 of 1154
Not a bad plan if you do your own and they're regularly tricky.
Mine are usually really easy. It's the state taxes that are stupid in my case. I really think they make you fill out all of those extra forms and mail in a novel because they're trying to get everyone to do it online.
I'm not trying to hide anything here. But I just feel like I'm being punished for being honest about cash. And rather than try to claim mileage to a place where hung some drywall and did some painting, I'm just going to swallow it and pay what is probably much more than I should be. The IRS themselves are useless in 2020. They just read the same damn things to me over the phone that I already read myself online, and would not commit at all to anything, and didn't even understand the questions I was asking them.
I really get the feeling that nobody reports this type of stuff, so at the end of the day, I'm the asshole here.
Maybe you have thoughts about this? It's the Schedule C I had to file.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf
Without giving exact numbers, let's just say that line 6 was around $600.
With no expenses written off, that's over the $400 that requires you to pay the 15.3% Self Employment tax (form SE), as well as the 10% FED tax and then any State and Local taxes on that separate tax return. These inflated numbers also eat into Earned Income Credit as well.
But I drove quite far to do the job, on quite a few days. Even if I were to do an extremely conservative estimate of my mileage for this work, it comes out to nearly $280 if it qualified for the .58cents/mile, and would go on line 9 in Part II.
Here's the rub... well... two of them, actually...
1. I have no proof of this if somebody asks me for it. I have zero GPS systems. I have no electronic toll unit. I don't even have any saved gas reciepts.
2. Even if I had any or all of that, the way the instructions are worded for doing Part IV "Information on your Vehicle" are convoluted as hell. I must have re-read that part a dozen times and I still don't know if my mileage even would qualify for that. (Especially troubling is that the amount of the write off I'd be looking to get is so close to the exact amount I'd need to have not to pay any SE taxes, which to me looks like a big red flag).
Instructions: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf
Specifically, line 44b:
Quote:
In most cases, commuting is travel between your home and a work location. If you converted your vehicle during the year from personal to business use (or vice versa), enter your commuting miles only for the period you drove your vehicle for business.
Travel that meets any of the following conditions isn't commuting.
You have at least one regular work location away from your home and the travel is to a temporary work location in the same trade or business, regardless of the distance. Generally, a temporary work location is one where your employment is expected to last 1 year or less. See Pub. 463 for more details.
The travel is to a temporary work location outside the metropolitan area where you live and normally work.
Your home is your principal place of business under section 280A(c)(1)(A) (for purposes of deducting expenses for business use of your home) and the travel is to another work location in the same trade or business, regardless of whether that location is regular or temporary and regardless of distance.
I don't own a business. I've never owned a business. But the income I made here has no other place to go than on a Schedule C that is designed for businesses and self proprietorship.
Basically, I really fucked myself here.
Oh well. Keep my money, you vultures. I'm SURE you're going to put it to good use.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
They say you can beat cramps with potassium- bananas, orange juice, potatoes, coconut water and such.
I can't say they've ever helped me but it might be worth a try
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
Happy New Year, WISHY. I edited out your psychopathic screed!
I usually eat a banana at work during my coffee break and it doesn't help.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Brenda - nice to see you around again! - I noticed you were gone for a bit.
I found an online remedy that people at work used to swear by, though I've never tried it myself: https://amishcountrystoreonline.com/stops-leg-foot-cramps/
Sometimes if I have a leg or foot cramp at night, if I chew on a Rolaids (has both calcium and magnesium) it helps, but for some reason Tums doesn't (just has calcium).
Nice to know I was missed. Had a few problems with this thing. So was slow posting for a few.
I'll have a look at your link Kiki later. Got things to do today in the rain.
Cramps like to happen when I am at work or just finished work.
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Another weather front has moved in which the weather people are now calling, "An atmospheric river" translated that means rain upon rain upon rain. Now there is a worry of flooding in low lying areas with the rain and the snow melting.
Also talk of a dribble more snow for my area over the end of the weekend into early next week. So we shall see.
But for today and tomorrow. Soggy, soggy, soggy.
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Quote:Sounds like Buffalo, but I think Buffalo has got you beat. And here's why! The county hospital where I worked had 13 floors - well they only counted 12 because they had the 'ground' floor and the next floor above that was the first floor ... it had 13 floors, despite their superstitious numbering. MANY a day, at any time of year, I'd drive in to work and the top floor(s) were in the clouds. I shit you not. On top of that, all the dirt had been scraped off by the previous glacier that left just a thin layer of clay behind. With the high water table and the lack of good soil, the trees were always stubby. There were these stubby trees, the low, grey ceiling, the short houses ... it was really claustrophobic.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah. It's not the cloudy type of grey sky where you at least get the enjoyment of watching things move when you look up. It's just solid gray. Every day, over and over. This part of the country is basically dead 3 months out of the year. I'm sick of it.
Quote:I feel ya on the taxes. Better to have them as overly-honest as possible.
I've done my taxes since I was 21, so this will be my 20th time. I'm trying to do the right thing here, and I feel like I've been severely punished for doing it. It was all cash with no 1099 forms for a quick side job I helped out with and my taxes were so thick I could barely stuff them in the standard envelope, and they're going to take over 40% of what little cash it was, with around 100 of that going to my SS/Medicare.
Oh well. :(
My friend said I need to go see a tax accountant. I'm like, dude, I didn't even make $1,000 over the standard deduction. I'm not paying somebody $200 or more to do my taxes. I'm just in a position where my two options are paying that money to the government, or paying a tax attorney to do my taxes better and just giving the money to him. And if it turned out I did them right and they couldn't do them better, then I'm out the $250 to the government plus the attorney fees.
So I'm looking at it like I overpaid by not claiming any mileage to and from the job (which at .58/mile was over $300 and would have meant no Self Employment tax, $30 less FED tax, $15 less state and local, and about $50 more for the Earned Income Credit for state and fed).
Better just to do that and not worry for the next 7 years that one day they're going to pull it and make life hell for me for a few weeks.
I HATE giving free money to the government and overpaying taxes, but the ROI of my plan is sound here. $250 isn't going to make or break me and it's worth it not to have the stress of doubt. I just gave them most of the money I'm saving on my internet this year.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Brenda - you know, my mantra is to see your doctor! Fortunately you live in Canada where it's easier and far cheaper. ANYway - leg cramps at night are common for some strange reason, but leg cramps during activity could be another issue completely. It's possible you have poor circulation, aka peripheral artery disease. If you have it checked out, you should mention when and under what circumstances your legs cramp up.
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I'm getting the antibiotics tomorrow. I think one or two of them might not be healing right. This is the third day in a row where I feel extreme fatigue and chills at around sunset. It's still hard to eat too because of the pain in two spots in particular. It's been 4 days. This should be over with.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I'm glad you're going to see a doctor, Jack! Since you didn't mention anything, I was hoping everything was OK. 
that it's not.
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I'm probably just overreacting. Reading online nothing is out of the ordinary. It's probably not fair for me to be comparing what I just went through with a single pull from before either.
With how good things went from day 1 to day 2 though, I would have thought I'd be eating peanuts tonight. I don't think that's in the cards.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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