Taxes

I hate filling out my US income taxes. They do a poor job of explaining things, and the NC taxes, in particular, have you jumping all around through the forms and book. I brought all of my stuff to school today to do my taxes... but can't. Why not? Because I didn't bring last year's tax stuff to crib off of.

For example, where do I put my interest income? Now, I'm not talking about major investment interest, merely the regular stuff that everyone with a bank account gets. From merely reading the instructions, I had previously assumed that I couldn't use the 1040NR-EZ form. Yeah... what's the point of having an EZ form if you can't use it if you have a bank account? That doesn't make sense! I was corrected when I went to a tax seminar a year or two back. They told us the secret of where to put the interest. I can't remember... and thus need my old form. (I stuck it where I think it goes, but I might have to change things.)

It gets even worse with the NC forms, because they don't have special "alien" forms. We have to use the regular NC resident forms, which refer to items on the normal 1040 forms... not the 1040NR forms. Not only are the line numbers different, but they use different terminology! I bumbled along as far as the deduction-adjustment part... and I'm hopelessly lost. Now, logic tells me that they probably want me to add back my withheld state taxes, and the difference between the NC and federal deduction. However, their "worksheet" does nothing of the sort. I remember at the tax seminar we were told to ignore the instructions and do what they told us to do. However, I don't remember what that is.

I've given up for now, until I can go home and compare against last year's taxes. I never have problems with my Canadian taxes, but I can't start them until I know how much tax I paid in the US. :P

Sheesh... if you're writing your tax forms so that a PhD student flounders, you've got problems. Especially when that PhD student *likes* math!