Saturday, October 29, 2011

Market Recovery

So this week was really helpful in regaining some of the paper losses I've suffered in my taxable and retirement accounts over the last few months. My taxable account is only a few thousand short of the highest balance I've ever had. Woo -- hoo!

Audit Results

So today I came home to another fat package from the IRS (why so many papers always from them?). This one I was eagerly anticipating. It was their response to my response to their totally ridiculous audit. The main point of their audit was totally unfounded, which was validated by the fact that in their response to me they did not even MENTION the initial reason why they supposedly audited me and just focused on my business expense deduction which they did not allow. They also assessed a penalty of 20% and charged back interest. Overall, it was about 2K additional tax. At this point I am so over it and am just going to pay the stupid 2K and move on. One would hope they would be over it at this point too, but they also included a handy little form asking me to extend the statue of limitations on the tax year in question which should expire April 1 until June 30th. I don't plan on signing this, but I'm consulting my accountant on the question.

The only redeeming factor to this whole nightmare was that I uncovered a mistake in my favor, which lessened the amount of additional tax that I have to pay.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Shedding Those Pesky Zeros from Bank Acct. Balance

The title of my post is pretty much how I feel these days. I'm due to write up my quarterly net worth statement and I am less than excited to do so. This is the first quarter I will have lost money in years. Cést la vie I suppose. Not like I've been doing much saving on my own to make up for my market losses. I feel like if the market is going to wipe out all of my savings, I might as well have some fun with what $ I do have! Next quarter should be better, because as of October 1, I have paid all of my social security tax for the year. That means an automatic raise of several hundred dollars during Q4. And we are inching towards bonus time (thank the gods).

I feel I have made some progress on fighting back the other force of evil trying to suck $ from me, the IRS. I put together a kick ass package for my audit, and there is no reason that I should not be receiving a check for overpayment from the IRS. I actually discovered that I double reported my dividends for the year in question, so I should get back a few hundred dollars. If they do not accept my business expense explication I will so appeal that finding. There is no reason for them not to, but with the government coffers running low I'm sure they are tasked with sucking every last penny they can from the populace. I'm going to fight for my rights and not let them intimidate me.