Friday, March 9, 2007

I wish that I had known this BEFORE I did my 2006 taxes

If you haven't filed your taxes yet and you don't read the instruction book cover to cover, you might be interested in this.

from Bostonist.com

We'll take this opportunity to remind you, dear reader, that there's free money coming to you on your taxes this year. Everyone gets $30 back if you're filing by yourself. Families generally qualify for the $60 credit. All you have to do is check a box. The government has been charging so many fees for phone service over the years without enough contention. Focus was given to some of them and the result was the IRS saying that they had erred in their ways and will be giving back individuals $30 in phone taxes. As many tax issues are, and as the great debate over the Bell v. Gray patent race, the issue is exceedingly complex. There are all sorts of forms and calculations that you can do – but someone told us that on average it will take you 14 hours to complete. 14 hours isn't worth the extra thirty cents we'd likely be able to claim from the government. We're satisfied to take our $30 this year and calling it even. Seriously, $30! That's real money. $30 is three Celtics games in the nosebleed section, three movies at the AMC Boston Common, a whole mess of Anna's burritos, or about one-seventeenth of a ticket to go see the Sox play at Fenway. Remember to check that box on your taxes, and thank Alexander Graham Bell for patenting (notice we're not claiming he "invented") the telephone…and he did it here in Boston.

Sadly, I didn't know about this when I filed my taxes and am going to miss out on this. Now I am annoyed. Oh well, maybe my $30 I let the government keep will go fix some potholes.

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