"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

One more thing off my list. Federal taxes are done and filed (hopefully successfully) via Free File. And the refund should just about cover the charitable donations that I made at the end of the year (which ended up coming out of savings...)

Now to get some sleep. The MD taxes can wait until next week.

The issue the IRS had with my return from 2010 was that a stock sale was reported to them that I didn't include on my return. The only 1099 I had from the company that handled my company stock for that year showed a much smaller sale (in # of shares and $). But going back to the *previous* year's return and the papers I had saved with that, I can see that I had the larger amount (both shares and $) then. So I must have sold it in either 2009 or 2010, but the company never sent me a 1099 for it, and by the end of the year I'd forgotten it. So it seems clear I do owe the back taxes. :-(

To add insult to injury, they figure the tax on zero cost (meaning that they assume the income from the sale of the stock is all profit), and since I have no 1099 showing how much I gained or lost (and I lost money on the smaller transaction), I can't really contest it (though I suppose I could send them the papers from the previous year, showing the cost value of the stock at that time).

Don't get me wrong; it's not a crippling sum of money I owe by any means (about a fortnight's pay, and I have plenty of savings--I don't live paycheck to paycheck). But I can think of things I'd rather do with the money, and it irritates me that either I was careless and lost the 1099 or the company was careless and didn't send it to me.

Well, that's one more chore down: taxes are done. I don't think I've ever let it go this late before filing them before, simply shocking.

Swings and roundabouts; I owed money to Maryland but got back money from the Federal government. And thank you! stimulus package for making the state tax on new cars purchased in most of 2009 deductible from Federal income!

What I saved in taxes about paid for the hotel bill from Amsterdam for the place that charged me full rate for my whole stay when I cancelled. :-(

Not a whole lot (at least so far), but very pretty. Been out sweeping it off the house's walks, and it's very light and powdery.

Another !yay! is that my W-2 from work came. I think I have everything I need to take a preliminary stab at my taxes.

Maryland taxes completed and filed electronically.

Two down and one to go; I have the VA tax all figured, so I think I will go ahead and do the e-filing for that, even though I have until May 1.

After all, after this I still have another raft of paperwork, being a federal contractor. *sigh*

Somehow, this is one of the things that I still get the pleasant "I'm really a grown-up" feeling when I finish it. :-)

EDIT: Bummer! The Virginia electronic filing system does not support part-year returns. I'll have to do that on paper. *That* I will leave until tomorrow.

Once again I played the game the way I meant to, and it looks like I will get some money back from the IRS. I so much prefer letting them hold some of my money, interest-free, over the course of the year to having to pay them more in the spring. This will (I assume) be the last time I get to take a mortgage interest deduction for a while (who knows, maybe forever!), but even without that my withholding and my charitable contributions are high enough that I don't have to worry about paying out.

The weekend was... too short. I went up to Cold Wars on Saturday, bought some cool stuff (mostly books and little model tents--so my little model generals will have a place to sleep!), and played in a DBA tournament. I had the dubious distinction of losing all four of my matches and being the only one of the ten participants to have a negative score! I finished the last battle by the light from my penlight (thanks, redactrice's parents, who gave it to me for Xmas many years ago!) because the power in a broad area of Lancaster PA went out due to big storms rolling through the area. I left after that, as many participants did, though apparently the power eventually came back on and combats resumed later.

soccer_fox had an early morning interview today up in Baltimore, so we got up at around 5. At least it's given me time to finish doing the taxes!

Speaking of Baltimore, I saw the last ep (ever! :-( of The Wire last night. I know the city hasn't entirely loved being the center of it, but the last portion (and, in truth, all five seasons) have been such a loving tribute to the city that if anyone were ever going to love Charm City, that show would help them do it.

Check out The Slow Road if you haven't recently; Chris and Mel have a few more episodes of their Spanish travels up, with some lovely photos and tips from where to stay and eat (and where not to!)

OK, that's it for me for now. More news as it happens...

As pointed out by mrereaser

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/

Effective July 1, 2006, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has repealed Article 12, Motor Vehicle License Tax, Sections 82-12-1 through 82-12-12 of the Code of the County of Fairfax. As a result, Fairfax County residents will no longer be required to purchase and display a County decal on the windshield of their vehicle!