Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Are you kidding me?

sigh... So i did my taxes months ago and was going to get a refund from both the state and federal. When you are poor with 1 W-2 and 1 "taxable interest" of less than $3, taxes are easy, quick and stress-free. Normally i get a refund from the US in some piddly amount (like $100) and have to pay MD an even piddlier amount (one year it was $8.17). This year when i ran the numbers it was $450 back from my federal and $800 back from MD. WHAT?!? TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS? Now that didn't seem right so i ran the numbers 3 times and each time i got the same amount. So i filed to have the refunds direct deposited into my savings account. The IRS got right on that and sent me the money, pronto. Thank you, Uncle Sam. Nothing from Maryland. Nothing. Still nothing. I decided that because i filed by paper instead of computer it was just taking longer. Still nothing. I knew that the money would be in saving "any day now" so i seriously splurged and took my unscheduled trip to St. Louis. Certainly Maryland would have my refund to me before the credit card bill came so i wouldn't even accrue any debt. It was such a good plan. I have never had any problems with taxes before. Nothing. Monday i get an envelope from the MD State Comptroller. I can see that it is a check and immediately think "i must have screwed up the savings account routing number or something; that's why it has taken so long." I open the envelope to find a check for $72. Ummmmm... what? 72 is not 800; it isn't even close. Somehow i managed to write the right number on the wrong line, so when i did the math it came out all wrong, EVERY TIME i ran it because the information was on the wrong line! I should be happy for the $72 (and i am since i talked to Matt last night who had to write MD a check for $700 cause he works in CA, but is a MD resident), but i already spent most of that phantom $800. Now i will have to pay off the St Louis trip instead of it being essentially "free." Not a tragedy, but damned inconvenient. And vexxing. How did i possibly screw that up?

4 comments:

Kaaren said...

Ouch!! Thank God for no Florida State income tax.

Unknown said...

Maybe God just really wanted you to go to St. Louis and knew you wouldn't do it unless you thought it wasn't costing you anything.

Rea said...

OH MAN!! That is just WRONG!!

Sigh, (shaking my head, muttering to herself), 'i love her, but...'

GRIN!!

Melanie said...

Ugh, that sucks!!! At least you'll always have the memories of a great trip.