"Do my taxes for me!"

[depechemodefan]

Yes, AARP has a program where they will have people who are trained to do so, do taxes free of charge for poeple over a certain age, ususally in the libraries. My dad did this, but the only connection the library has is to provide the location - they have NOTHING to do with the actual preparation. Maybe she was confused about that? But this service only prepares the returns, they don't actually file them for the client, and they stop about a week before tax day.

I work in a library, with that type of help. We have people lining up at least 2 hours ahead of time. I remember one library, on a Sat., had people lining up since 8am outside in the cold last week.

I remember one year, it was April 17. A guy who sells newspapers* comes in and says we do file taxes. Two librarians were telling him no. He keeps on going on about how none of us would help him, and he was loud. No idea none of us got security to kick him out (though he was pretty loud; security should have come and kicked him out). Finally a regular patron said he would help him. Of course the @$$wipe kept on going, "uh huh, see you were lyin' There are people who do your taxes" and other things like that. Latter when I left to wait for my bus he passed me by. It was raining a bit, so as he passed by this one person with an umbrela he pushes that umbrela out of the way. Ugh. Crazy people.

*People who sell newspapers wear t-shirts with the name of the newspaper. Pretty much the only people who wear them are sellers of papers. They are not freebies to customers

[Andara Bledin]

I know some people at work who did theirs early had to re-do their returns because the 401k fairness things were sent late (that's where people who did the right thing and put in a lot into their 401ks are punished because other folks in the company making less than them put less into their 401k's, something with making sure the company doesn't discriminate in favor of those making more money or some such crap).

It has to do with the designation of "highly compensated" as opposed to regularly compensated. I don't know any of the details, but I do know that the bosslady had to go over her records to determine who was doing what and to make sure it was all fair.

As for why they have to make sure that highly compensated people don't put in too much as compared to regular workers, it's actually so that the 401k doesn't get moved to a different bracket. Because otherwise, everybody who makes less and can't afford to put a whole lot in would get less benefit from it somehow.

^-.-^

[Gurndigarn]

Somewhat on-topic... When I sent my forms in (well in advance ) I noticed something interesting. Why is it that the federal form I had to send in was only 2-3 pages...but the one for Pennsylvania was about 10? What's up with that? Shouldn't that be the other way around?

Depends on the state. Ohio is about half as complicated as federal... or do it via telefile and it's about 10% as complex.