Death and Taxes

[shewhomust]

I thought I was done with Capital Gains Tax - I nagged them until they sent me the necessary forms, I filled in their forms, I sent them an enormous cheque, I had their letter saying "The only thing wrong with this form is that you failed to write this number in this box.". "Phew!" I thought.

Then I had the letter demanding a payment of interest for late payment, and it wasn't entirely unreasonable, so I paid up, thinking "Well, that really is the end of the story."

This morning - three weeks later - comes another letter demanding a substantial penalty for late payment. So this afternoon, instead of the various constructive and entertaining things I might have been doing, I have been putting together an appeal against the penalty (which, because of how the rules are drawn up, I shall have to pay and then reclaim).

So any reports of the Heritage Open Weekend will have to wait.

Comments

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

Oh, no.

Does somebody need a hug?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you, that would be much appreciated. And I know you have similar troubles...

(It isn't a complete financial disaster for me; I can pay it if I have to. But I'd rather not, and I did think I was done with the whole mess).

[helenraven.livejournal.com]

What a pain! I hope you get everything resolved smoothly. I've generally found the Revenue quite reasonable, but one would always prefer not to have to deal with them.

[sekhmets-song.livejournal.com]

Oh, good gods, can't any law maker write capital gains tax laws so that they make sense?
It was many years ago, after I cashed in some stocks to pay some medical bills, that I first came across the craziness that is (U.S.) capital gains tax code. That is also when I first developed the theory that the politicians who actually write the tax codes, in the US at least) have some pretty serious drug habits. The US CG code looks like some sort of math-voodoo. I am a CPA's daughter and have a pretty good head for numbers. I may not always agree with the amount of money my government insists I pay them in taxes, by I can at least understand the basic formulas for arriving at the amount.
Not true, once we had crossed into the Land Of Capital Gains. I have no idea what the theory behind this code is. I was taking the gains, adding it to some completely arbitrary number. Then I had to multiply this by another arbitrary number and set it aside. I then had to multiply the first sum by another arbitrary number, set that aside and repeat one more time. Then I was comparing my three results and adding and subtracting some set of them to come up with some number I was to multiply by one of two choices or arbitrary numbers. Um, what?!?!?!?!? There really was no way to know if I had done my math right or even picked the right set of numbers to work with. I still live in fear that I somehow have messed the whole thing up and my error will result in something like jail time.
Oy! Gotta wonder what illegal substances the tax men were smoking the day they wrote that code!
Some days, I do feel like the tax men are trying to make it so that anyone can be gone after for penalties for unknowingly messing up their taxes.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That's terrible!

Once I actually had all the forms, our system wasn't anything like that bad: but although in theory you are allowed to do this as a private citizen, the assumption was clearly that you ought to be paying a professional to do it for you, and if you were doing it yourself you'd probably got it wrong.