Why do I need last year’s tax return to do this year’s taxes?
I know I’m not dumb, and if I wasn’t convinced before of this Bush administration’s malevolence, I am now. The number of “worksheets” you have to do to claim all the credits offered to low-income people is astonishing.
And yes, I am getting a refund.
We started doing income taxes this weekend and were wondering the software (H&R’s Tax Cut) was quizzing us using obfuscated tax accounting babble like “did you have a subordinated debenture event amortized over the fiscal year 2004 depreciation schedule Peach 3.14?” Since the “home and business” edition is, literally, two products, we were quick to lay the blame on it. (Not helping its case are the hard-coded and incompatible installation paths.) Having slept on it, it’s plausible the complexity is a nefarious adminstration. Several relatively standard deductions I took last year are watered down this year, despite my income being a fraction of the previous. If it weren’t for the “business” part of my income, I’d be totally horked.