Darkoshi

In previous years, I always got a 1099-G form from my state (South Carolina) in January showing the prior year's state tax refund amount. This year I didn't receive that form even though I did receive a SC tax refund last year.

In most previous years, I itemized deductions on the federal return. Last year I instead took the standard deduction.

I know that you don't need to report the state tax refund if you took the standard deduction the prior year. So, I would guess that is why I didn't receive the form this year. But if not for that, I would have thought the state would always send the form to everyone who got a refund, and not do it conditionally based on who who itemized and who didn't, as the latter would be more complicated. I'm not sure the SC state tax form even has a field that definitively indicates whether or not you itemized on the federal form.

So is it normal not to be sent a state 1099-G form when you didn't itemize last year?

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Update: I found this page which indicates "Some states are no longer mailing Statements of State Income Tax Refunds (Form 1099-G Certain Government Payments)."
South Carolina is not in the list on that page, but the page is from 2020. So perhaps SC stopped mailing them out to everyone this year? But I've been searching and haven't found any news item on that so far.

I don't need the form, but it bothers me not knowing for sure why I didn't get it this time.

Trying to finish my taxes. I've done the forms, just need to enter the data and submit it.

body: It's cold.
Ah, a perfect time to make the rest of that hot chocolate. I heat it up and drink it. Yum.

body, later: Have to pee.
body, later: Have to pee.
body, later: Have to pee.

body, jittery: I'm hungry.

I eat some dinner.
I finally finish creating my online account.

body/brain: SO TIRED. SO SLEEPY.

What are you talking about? It's only midnight!

SCDHEC news release, 2022/03/11
"the federal government has expanded its at-home test program to offer every home in the U.S. two sets of four free at-home tests."

https://www.covidtests.gov/
"Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 2 sets of 4 free at-home tests. If you already ordered your first set, order a second today."


Related to HSA accounts:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8889.pdf

What’s New

Amounts paid for personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes, for use by you, your spouse, or your dependent(s) to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are eligible medical expenses that may be paid or reimbursed from an HSA.

The cost to diagnose COVID-19 is an eligible medical expense for tax purposes, which means the cost of home testing for COVID-19 for you, your spouse, or your dependent(s) may be paid or reimbursed from an HSA.

Reminders
Qualified medical expenses.
Over-the-counter medicine (whether or not prescribed) and menstrual care products are qualified medical expenses that may be paid or reimbursed from an HSA.

More info on the last item:
2020 CARES Act: Menstrual products eligible for FSA, HSA, & HRA
If you have receipts, you can get reimbursed retroactively back to Jan 1, 2020.
"However, the CARES Act does not specify whether or not menstrual products will remain protected in future tax law after the COVID-19 pandemic is over."

Qiao had his taxes done in February. The 2nd stimulus check was deposited to his bank account on 12/31/2020, but he didn't realize it until the IRS notice 1444-B finally arrived in his mailbox, which was after he'd done his taxes. Not knowing that he'd gotten the stimulus check already, his tax preparer claimed the recovery rebate credit for him on his tax return.

Once Qiao realized the mistake, we submitted an amended tax return to the IRS along with the appropriate payment.

Now the IRS sent him a letter saying they think he paid too much, and they're going to return the difference.

I double checked the amounts calculated by his tax preparer, and what I calculated on the amended tax return, and based on the instructions, they were correct. So I don't know WHY the IRS wants to give Qiao extra money back, but.... I guess it's not worth fighting them over it.

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On the other hand, I'm still waiting to get my 2019 federal tax refund! According to the IRS site, as of March 26, they had 2 million paper returns remaining to process. It looks like they'll be done in another month, so hopefully around then I'll either get the refund, or finally find out if my 2019 tax return was lost in the mail and needs to be redone.

I am now doing my 2020 taxes, and if I don't run into technical difficulties, will be submitting them online this time instead of by the mail.

I've started wiping some of the door knobs, fridge handle, etc. with Chlorox wipes once a day. I never did that before. Today it occurred to me that the container is several years old, even though it hadn't been opened previous, and the chloride in it may have decomposed. The wipes don't have a bleachy smell, only a lemony fragrance. Maybe I'd be better off using the Sporicidin wipes I bought 4.5 years ago for cleaning mold off the cabinets, if they haven't dried out yet.

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I filled in my tax forms yesterday, though I still need to review them while clear-headed to make sure I didn't miss anything. I did it in a single session, which took me about 8 hours. Some of that time as usual, due to curiosity, was spent looking up things mentioned in the forms, like generation skipping taxes.

The SC form instructions this year are laid out in a single column per page, making them much easier to read on a computer screen. The federal instructions are still have a 2-column layout, which requires one to scroll down, then up, then down again, to read each page.

I haven't yet attached the forms together, as there's no stapler here, nor any paper clips in the obvious places (though I'm sure there are at least a few clips to be found somewhere). I considered scavenging staples from other papers to unbend and reuse them. Other ideas are to sew a few loops of thread through the paper with a needle, or bend some wire into a paperclip shape (or for that matter into staples), or cut a thin sheet of stiff plastic or cardboard such that it could act as a paperclip.

Then I have to decide whether I should actually mail them now or wait until closer to the extended July 15 deadline. I would normally take them to the mailboxes at the post office, but neither getting them sent nor getting a quick refund is essential to me. So maybe I shouldn't?

Yes, I know I could have avoided both issues by e-Filing.

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I've seen multiple bullfrogs in the yard. There was a report of a coyote in the area; that it attacked a small dog while the dog was out for a walk with its person. I've heard a dog-like howling noise a few times at night, which I now suspect might be the coyote. I've heard other intriguing sounds coming from the lake-bed area at night. Once is a fluttery kind of sound; I wish I knew what it was that makes the various sounds. Although knowing might lessen the charm.

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South Carolina now has 925 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 18 deaths. The rate of increase appears to have slowed down since I started keeping track two weeks ago. The # of deaths is probably the most reliable number to be using in calculations, as the number of confirmed cases can vary depending on how much testing is done.

SC's population is about 5 million. Richland County's is about 400,000.
In Richland County, there are 135 confirmed cases. If one estimates 10 times as many people have actually caught it, that would be about 1350 people in the county... still less than half a percent.

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The doorbell rang this evening. Door Dash. The delivery guy realized it was the wrong house before I could ask Qiao if he'd ordered anything. (We've never yet ordered food to the house, but it's not inconceivable.) It's a good thing the guy didn't just put the food down and leave.

I got my taxes done.

I made a pie with a chocolate filling. It's somewhat gooey, not what I was expecting from the photo on the box. But it's actually good, even though it also tastes oddly like it contains grape syrup mixed in with the chocolate. Based on the ingredients list, I can't imagine why. It contains alkalized cocoa, and the link I posted before indicates that the non-alkalized sort is the kind that's more likely to taste "fruity".

I also made some Waldmeister Goetterspeise which is a German jello with a unique flavor not found in the U.S. My aunt used to make it for me as a kid (with vanilla sauce on top!), and I still like it. The flavor isn't as intense as I remembered though.

I trimmed my hair a bit. It was tickling the back of my neck too much a few days ago. My torso gets itchy sometimes. When I scratch, the skin gets pinkish red, and small itchy bumps, widely scattered, appear. When I stop scratching, it goes away. I haven't figured out a cause. It's been happening for a few years now. (Of course, having written "torso" there, now a few spots on my arms and legs started itching.)

I'm over my cold, but still have a lot of phlegm. That always used to be the one of the worst parts of a cold, the weeks and weeks of snot that would only slowly diminish back to normal levels. So I did neti today for the first time in possibly 5 years. I stopped using neti around then, after reading warnings against doing neti with unsterile tap water. Well, I used tap water today, like I used to. Anything else is too much trouble. But after reading the warnings again, I may forgo the whole thing for another 5 years.

I used LJSec to delete my old protected posts from LJ, as that was something that had been on my to-do list for a while. There may not be much point in having done it, but at least it is off my list now. First, I did another import of all entries & comments from LJ over to DW, as well as a few backups of both my LJ and DW (with LJArchive), to make sure I wouldn't lose anything. The only problem with LJArchive is that imported comments don't show up with the user's LJ name like it does on the Dreamwidth pages, but rather with a generic ext_#### ID. If I have time someday, I'd like to see if I can update the utility to fix that.

A few weeks ago, I cancelled my Netflix subscription, as I was using it so rarely. Qiao has another Netflix account anyway, which I can use when I want to. He also has an Amazon Prime account for watching videos.

Last week at work, I was able to find the cause of another problem, and fix it. Well, I probably fixed more than one problem, but the last one is the one I remember. It gives me such a rush, a good feeling, being able to discover what obscure thing is making the code not work right and how to fix it, when I still don't even understand what half of the rest of the code is meant to do. I was thinking, I've been working on this same general code base, though it has undergone many transfigurations, for the past 22 years. I could spend my whole *life* working on it, and I still wouldn't understand it all, especially because it is constantly being changed. That made me think for a moment that maybe I should leave this job, just so that *whole life* part wouldn't come true. Eh. But whatever, this code or some other code, what difference. Hmm. Coming up on the end of the quarter. Wonder if they will have layoffs.

I submitted my federal taxes yesterday through freefilefillableforms.com. At first I thought to have my refund directly deposited to my bank, so I clicked the "checking" radio button in the section for the type of account. Then I decided that having a paper check sent to me would be safer than giving the IRS my bank account info. The fewer places that data is stored, the less likely it is to be hacked. But as it was a radio button, there was no way to un-select it after having selected it. So I simply left the routing and account number fields blank.

Today I got an email that my return was rejected due to the radio button being selected, but no account number being entered! "If you are unable to fix the issue, you will have to print the return and file by mail."

The only way I saw around the problem was to click the "Start Over" button. Now I have to re-enter all the forms from scratch, dang it. That reminds me I need to buy envelopes - I wouldn't have had an envelope for mailing in the forms anyway.

And now I'm kicking myself in the head, as after reading the site's User Guide, I find out that I could have unselected the radio button after all, by double-clicking it! Ah hahahaha grrrr. Read the fucking manual, indeed.

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The website for filing South Carolina returns (southcarolina.statefillableforms.com) now uses the same web interface as the federal forms. I wonder if that site is available for all states' tax returns now, or only some. SC's tax data was hacked a few years ago, and this is the first year I'm comfortable enough to submit my SC taxes electronically again, though I'm not giving them my bank info either.

Do not go to irs.com looking for forms and publications; that is a private website, not affiliated with the IRS. The real IRS website is irs.gov.

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If you have an HSA (Health Savings Account), you have to submit an additional form (8889) with your federal taxes. When your HSA contributions are taken automatically from your paycheck, that is called a "Cafeteria Plan", and those amounts should be included along with the employer contributions on line 9, *not* on line 2, of form 8889.

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Long Term Care (LTC) insurance premiums may be considered a qualified medical expense that can be reimbursed from an HSA (some restrictions apply).

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The federal "free file fillable forms" website automatically rounds amounts that you enter (at least, it did last year). Therefore, if you plan to submit your taxes via that method, and if you fill out drafts of your forms first, it is best to round the amounts to begin with.

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South Carolina lets you contribute a part of your tax refund to several specific organizations via what they call "Contributions for Check-offs" (form I-330). I was never certain, but always assumed, that these organizations were all themselves tax-deductible. In other words, that you could deduct these contributions on your federal tax form the next year.

Their website simply says that the donations *may* be tax deductible:

Donations made to elligible [sic] charities may be tax deductible. Deductions are taken in the year in which the donation was made. Individuals making donations through CheckOff, filing in 2012 for 2011, would include the donation on their 2012 federal tax return.

Today, I tried to verify it by using the search tool on the IRS website. I only found some of the organizations, so it seems that the rest might not be officially tax-deductible after all. These were my findings:

Endangered Wildlife Fund (www.dnr.sc.gov) - not found
Childrens Trust Fund (www.scchildren.org) - EIN:57-0785431
Eldercare Trust Fund (aging.sc.gov) - not found
SC Veteran's Trust Fund - EIN:57-1031920
Donate Life South Carolina (www.donatelifesc.com) - EIN:57-1052258
SC First Steps to School Readiness Fund - EIN:57-1087576
War Between the States Heritage Trust Fund - not found
SC Litter Control Enforcement Program (PalmettoPride) - EIN:58-2466709
SC Law Enforcement Assistance Program (scleap.org) - not exactly found, but seems to be affiliated with this organization: EIN:57-1063879 (Law Enforcement Chaplaincy for South Carolina)
K-12 Public Education Fund (S.C. Department of Education) - not found
SC State Parks Fund (www.southcarolinaparks.com) - not found
SC Military Family Relief Fund - not found
SC Conservation Bank Trust Fund (sccbank.sc.gov) - not found
SC Financial Literacy Trust Fund - not found
SC State Forests Fund (S.C. Forestry Commission) - not found
SC Department of Natural Resources Fund (www.dnr.sc.gov) - not found

(update - this one was added for tax year 2016)
SC Assocation of Habitat Affiliates (www.schabitats.org) - seems to be an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, which has EIN 91-1914868.
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Free File Fillable Forms

When entering form 1040, the "Done With This Form" button will always remain disabled. It is only used for the other forms that you Add.

W2, W2G and 1099-R forms can be added on the "Step 2" page.

"All other Form 1099’s, including SSA 1099, 1099 INT, 1099 MISC etc. are not available as individual forms in Free File Fillable Forms because you do not have to e-file these statements to IRS."

This is somewhat related to the last post.

I thought I had previously posted about the new high-deductible (HD) health care plan I switched to last year, but I had actually only written a comment on someone else's post. So I'm posting it to my journal now.

The HD plan includes a Health Savings Account (HSA) as mentioned in the prior post. The low-deductible (LD) plan instead includes a Healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA). HSAs should not be confused with FSAs, as they are different in several regards. HSA's are much better - unused funds roll over each year, earn tax-free interest, and can be used tax-free for qualified medical expenses in retirement. FSAs do not allow unused funds to roll over each year.

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I was surprised last year when I calculated the costs of going with the new HD plan versus the LD plan of my employer's health insurance.

Both plans have a deductible and a yearly out-of-pocket maximum amount, as well as biweekly premiums you have to pay. The amounts differ per plan. The benefits are pretty much the same.

I thought that the HD plan would make more sense for someone who had fewer medical bills, and that the LD plan would make sense for someone who had higher bills. However, that wasn't exactly true.

Supposing I didn't have any health care costs during the whole year, the HD plan would cost me less, as its premiums are much smaller. The HD plan would cost me only $260 while the LD plan would cost $2184.

Supposing I had just enough costs to meet the high deductible ($2500)... then I'd end up paying about $200 more for that year compared to the low deductible ($400) plan. The LD plan's biweekly premiums are so much higher ($84 versus $10), that by the end of the year, you pay nearly as much in premiums as the higher deductible amount would have been.

Supposing I had high enough bills to reach the yearly out of pocket maximum, the total amount I'd have to pay on the HD plan would actually be $500 less than the total amount that I'd pay to reach it on the LD plan.

Based on all that, it seemed that whether or not I were to have a lot of medical bills, the HD plan was likely to cost me less.

The LD plan seems like it would only possibly be the better option for people who don't have enough savings at the beginning of the year to cover the higher deductible.

Not all HD and LD plans are the same. The deductibles, premiums, and benefits can be very different than my own situation. Anyone who is considering them needs to do their own comparisons. One shouldn't assume however, that one is better than the other without researching them first.

Another good thing with last year's changes to my company's health care plans was that the contributions were made variable based on salary bands. Employees with higher salaries pay higher premiums now than employees with lower salaries.

maybe the people who made some of this music are horrible people. maybe if they were having a party and playing their music, they wouldn't want me there enjoying the music with them. maybe they'd want to rape me or stone me to death or keep me from going out in public without a male overseer and without being covered in a hijab. maybe they're the kind of people who torture animals for fun. maybe they're the kind of people who keep their dogs chained up in the backyard their whole lives.

maybe the slight aura of enjoyment that one gets into while listening to nice music is a fantasy. Yes, it is. the real people who made the music aren't necessarily anything like you vaguely imagine them to be while you're bopping along to the beat. the lyrics sometimes aren't even vaguely like you imagine them to be. it shouldn't make a difference though. there's nothing wrong with enjoying the music, as long as you can keep your vague enjoyment untouched by any unpleasant information.

it seems i'm procrastinating again. why does doing taxes always have this effect on me?