After making some more progress with my taxes, I needed to report my Schedule C amount on the 1040. They asked for it to go on a line which wasn't actually there. After rereading the instructions several times, then perusing the 1040 to see if that number had somehow skipped over onto the back side (it hadn't, silly!) I took a beat, had breakfast, and started over.
Oh. I see it now. It's not on the 1040, it's on the 1040 Schedule 1.
That never existed when I was working. It always went straight to the 1040. Well, besides going to the Schedule SE, which I'd already gone through. I don't owe anything there. So I thought I was in a good and reasonably perceptive state of mind when I went looking for the way to get the number from Schedule C onto the 1040 so I could finish up. Apparently I was incorrect.
It has been known to happen.
Back to the printer to print out both sides of a Schedule 1, two copies total. Always keep one for yourself. It can be the one you scribble out numbers on and replace them with the correct stuff, so long as the final result is right. In other words, the worksheet. Once all the craziness is over, only the good numbers go on the forms you send in, so you can pretend you did it all correctly from the beginning. It's an ego thing.
But back to the new extra form part. It says, once you punch in the link to that form, that it is a result of the Paperwork Reduction Act. (Dum-da-da-dummmm! Hear those self-congratulatory horns blowing their fanfare?) It's two sides of about a bazillion ways one can have extra income one needs to report, including the Schedule C which used to be reported straight to the 1040. I had none of the extra forms of reportable income needing to go on the Schedule 1. For example, imagine my surprise to find out that Olympic athletes, theoretically amateurs, have sport income needing to be declared. After looking over the complete form, front and back, I put one number, the income from Schedule C, on one line in Schedule 1, and from there onto a line only for it on the 1040. It didn't affect any of the other information on those whole two pages of Schedule 1. Nothing on Schedule 1 affected it either.
Just that one number.
Just on that one line of the Schedule 1.
Then transferred unaltered onto the 1040.
It couldn't go direct? It needed two more pages in order to reduce paperwork?
Meanwhile I still need to go back to the Schedule C and figure out which wrong job description I need to put down for how I earned some money. And if that weren't sufficient frustration, I need to go through the Social Security worksheet to figure out how much of that is taxable. I went through it three times, each time balking at being required to subtract a number larger than the one it's coming out of, which my my math education makes it a negative number. Once achieved, I then later need to do something unlikely with that negative number against some other number. Does that give me a positive number again? Don't two negatives make a positive, or is that only in grammar?
Since I'm asking irreverent questions, is it conspiritorial-minded of me to suggest that these form changes have been put in place by legislators paid by lobbyists whose sole goal is to create more job security for accountants who prepare taxes because they alone have the secret handshake or something? And now with more IRS employees as well, to justify their positions?
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for jobs to keep people both useful and independent. I'm also appreciative that folks are starting to have to pay their actual taxes legally owed. But does the route getting there have to take it out on me? Have you seen how old I am? I'm at least three years older than last week. How is that fair? Are they trying to get me to quit collecting Social Security faster?
* * * *
OK, brain has recovered, numbers crunched, all but a signature from my sleeping spouse and a couple stamps needed to keep me/us legal. I decided to refer to myself as a miscellaneous manufacturer by number code, with "hobby jewelry maker" in long form. I decided the club does the retailing part and no way in hell I want to claim those headaches. We voted in a volunteer treasurer for that. She's great. But that does raise one question. What do I call myself next year after I've started to sell a few non-jewelry glass fusion/slumping items? Looks like I have 366 days to figure that out. Whatever I decide on, there'll be no taxes owed. I've been slowing down on submitting things for sale this spring, ever since I earned myself a 1099.
I think I've earned a nap now.
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