Blog Number 169

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

For the first time in my life, I waited until (almost) the last day to do my taxes.  Actually I had filed my federal taxes 2 months ago but I waited until the end to do my state taxes.  One of the numerous good things about living in Texas is that there is no state income tax however since I lived part of the year in Indiana, I still had to file my Indiana state taxes.  Since I was only a resident for part of the year I had to complete the following forms...

• IT-40PNR Form - Indiana Part-Year or Full-Year Nonresident Individual Income Tax Return
• IT-40PNR Schedule A - Schedule A for the IT-40PNR: Income, Proration & Adjustments
• CT-40PNR - County Tax Schedule for Part-Year and Full-Year Nonresident

In past years I simply purchased the state tax software along with the federal tax software however my usual program did not offer the partial year forms as part of their options so I had to do everything long hand.  It took me about 2 hours if you figure in the time it took me to find the forms online (via the Indiana Department of Revenue website), print them out, fill them out and mail them.  Notice the verbiage and naming concepts on the forms.  I am not a part year resident, I am a part year NON resident.  That sounds so negative.  Like I have the NERVE to live somewhere else besides that great state!

I thought the form would be pretty simple.  Count the number of days that I lived in Indiana (219) and divide by 365 and then pay that percentage of tax (219/365 = 0.60).  I turns out it is not quite that simple.  My simple method assumes too much (specifically that you earned your income consistently over the course of the year).  Well I completed IT-40PNR Schedule A (it had to be done first) and then IT-40PNR but had to stop half way to do CT-40PNR.  I had to start over once too due to a misunderstanding of the instructions.  After all was said and done, I had to sit down and write a check to the Indiana Department of Revenue for the grand total of $7.00.

But I had one last thing to do.  The instruction booklet for these forms (IT-40PNR Booklet) states as follows...

Staple your W-2s, 1099s, and/or WH-18s under line 1 on the front of Form IT-40PNR.

and

Do not staple your check or money order to the form as this will delay processing your return. Paperclip the payment to the bottom left-hand side of the front of the return.

I use a stapler exactly once per year and it is to attach my W-2.  I also use a paperclip once a year (actually I only need it the years I have to send in a payment).  Because of this I had to go to the front office of the apartment complex and ask to borrow their stapler and a paperclip.  Perhaps if the state of Indiana offered a tax credit for ownership of staplers and paperclips, I would invest in some.  For now though (since I am now a resident of Texas [a state with no income tax]) I will not be making those purchases.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon