Things got a little tetchy ’round the old Badger place…
I’m doing my taxes, and Uncle B is…well, he is what he is. Can’t change that, can we? (Photo via Lipstick’s drunken badger link).
Yeah, filing from a foreign country, I automagically get an extension until…well, okay, I’m still late. But they owe me, so they don’t usually care. And I’m damned if I can find Form 998 and some other shit. I was going to do this one on my ownsome, but I finally broke down and crawled back to TurboTax.
Which, I have to say, wasn’t MUCH easier. Though they acknowledge foreign filers in a superficial way, they won’t accept my UK phone number, address or postal code. In the end, I had to use the address of the house I sold in Rhode Island just to get the forms to print out (no e-filing from out of the country).
Do you know, I’m going to have to file with Uncle Sam for the rest of my days? I’m unlikely to make enough money that I owe anything (over and above what I pay Her Maj, that is), but I have to file anyway. The theory is, the only reason anyone would possibly leave the good ol’ US of A is to evade taxes, so they have to keep asquint on us shifty overseas types.
Generally speaking, I’m as much of a rah-rah, flag-humping, pie-loving, jingoistic, obnoxiously patriotic American as the next weasel, but this fills me with meh.
Posted: July 14th, 2009 under personal, politics.
Comments: 14
Comments
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: July 14, 2009, 7:09 pm
And people wonder why I hate dogs?
Damned good cherries, these!
Comment from apotheosis
Time: July 14, 2009, 7:41 pm
I was under the impression that the meh reaction to taxpaying was part & parcel with being a good patriotic American. I mean, if we ENJOYED paying taxes, we’d have remained living under the brutal heartless lash of the crown.
No offense, Mr. Badger.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 14, 2009, 8:08 pm
It’s not so much the paying of the taxes (though, yes, I hates ’em to pieces), it’s the flipping pointless paperwork. We’re the only country that requires its citizens to file back home in perpetuity, no matter where they live and make money.
Um, at least I think we are.
Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 14, 2009, 9:21 pm
Well, have fun with it. If you have to pay, pay in Pesos…..
Comment from nbpundit
Time: July 14, 2009, 10:46 pm
Take a gander at 8:15 am. LOL alotz
http://www.vg.no/spesial/24timer/#
Comment from Mike C.
Time: July 15, 2009, 4:41 am
Heh. Welcome to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Been there, done that. All by myself and on paper, too (although it’s really not that hard.)
Anyway, the entire galaxy of IRS forms are available online. And given that you live in the UK, the odds of you ever having to actually pay US FIT are vanishingly small. I suppose if you maintained UK residence but earned a lot of pounds in, say, Dubai, the US might be able to nick you for a donation, though.
Count yourself lucky. When I earned all my money outside the US but maintained US residence, I not only had to cough up to the IRS, but also to the State of VA.
Comment from dfbaskwill
Time: July 15, 2009, 7:55 am
At least you do not need to fill out the 27 page census form that’s coming! I plan on answering every question “4, 2 adults, 2 children”. Letting them know when I leave for work in the AM seems like an invitation for ACORN to ransack my home!
Comment from apotheosis
Time: July 15, 2009, 8:20 am
You should mail them some tea.
Comment from Jakeman
Time: July 15, 2009, 9:54 am
Funny you should mention this. On Monday I got a nastygram in the mail from the IRS that my Form 4868 (Extension to File) had been rejected and that I needed to file immediately instead of October as I had planned.
I mailed it several days in advance of the deadline, all I can figure is that CanadaPost takes so long to get from where we are living in Canada (a whopping 45 minutes’ drive from the border), that the U.S. postmark occurred after April 15.
Of course, Unc Sam happily cashed my check back in April, so I’m not sure why they give a crap about the paperwork.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 15, 2009, 10:00 am
Mike, I’m making Tennessee my “home base” in the States, as my family is there and I own a shit piece of land out in the boonies. Am I supposed to file with TN?
Comment from David Gillies
Time: July 15, 2009, 4:50 pm
If I recall correctly, North Korean expatriates have to pay taxes as well.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 15, 2009, 6:39 pm
Whoa! The Colonel never offered a buckit o’ wzls, did he?
Comment from benning
Time: September 7, 2009, 8:34 am
I hope you saved a copy of everything. The numbers won’t be the same, next time, but you can remember how you dood it!
I hate taxes!
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