Invisible madness

Tax season, refund, bills…life. April 21, 2011

Originaly written: January 28, 2011

Here comes the tax man again, falling on my head like a memory, falling on my head like a new emotion…

Okay, so I am parlaying Annie Lenox to soften the blow of the inevitable. :-O I am not an eager beaver for tax season, but I just want to get it out of the way. I am still waiting for my W2 from my former employer. I hope I get it soon, so I could start preparing my tax return. I wonder what tax software I should use (if I should use any) this year – Turbo Tax? H&R Block? Last year I prepared my tax on my own sans software– which meant having to read the instructions line by line; computing and recomputing. It was a tax return success, as the IRS issued the total refund I calculated. Actually, I have been preparing tax returns on my own for a couple of years now. I did use CINTAX several times, but I still do a manual computation of my taxes (for fun, perhaps? Or I am too anal?) Possibly in my past life, I was an accountant? Hmm, if I didn’t major in Communications in college, I would have studied Accounting. May be, it is not yet too late for me to pursue accounting? Nah. I should have a career by now. At this point, I have no business incurring student loans. (Oy, I am not old. (Who said I was anyway?) Yes, I am being defensive. Truth is, I am 30. 30 is a defensive age!) Oooh, I got sidetracked, a sure sign of advanced age. Grr. Shall we go back to the matters at hand…tax, refund, bills…life.

I must confess that I am having tax issues of a different nature– FICA refund. I was previously on a foreign student (F1) status, which meant that working on OPT, I should not have been deducted social security and medicare contributions. My boss may or may not have known about the FICA exemption for F-1 students. I am inclined to think that my employer knows about it, after all my boss is an expert in immigration (and F1 status considerations, such as tax, would have been something my boss should have general knowledge of), but anyway… Since my employer deducted FICA, I had to claim for a refund from the IRS. My claim was received by the IRS on April 2010. Yet until now, I have not received my refund! Oh, I keep getting those perfunctory notices, that the IRS needs to conduct additional investigation, thus they require an additional 45 days to look into my claim. Well, it has already been a lot of 45-day cycles now, hasn’t it?!

I have not been a passive party through this ordeal, then again, perhaps I have not been as pro-active as I should have been? I think I have called the IRS every month or twice a month to follow-up, but no luck. My case has already been referred to the Taxpayer Advocate Service. I hope it doesn’t languish there. My “advocate” has been very nice. She returns my phone calls on the same day or after a day or two. But at this point, I really just need the money! It is sad, frustrating, sad, ridiculous, sad, unacceptable, sad, to have to wait for a refund this long. I feel so helpless to be at the mercy of these government agencies. I have been very patient and respectful in all my dealings with them, but to be in a situation where all one could do is wait, is very irksome.

To compound my situation of long overdue refund and current unemployment, I have some medical bills I need to pay. My parents visited me last year and one of them had an emergency situation, which required medical attention. I did obtain medical insurance for them, but the insurance did not cover all the charges. Although I know that I am not obligated to settle the bills for my parents, I do feel responsible for expenses for when they were here. Besides, they took care of me all these years, it is my turn to take care of them. Based on the insurance provider’s explanation of benefits, I should receive three bills. I have recently received two out of three. I hope the third one does not reach me anytime soon. Or at least I hope that my refund will arrive before the third bill.

Despite everything that is happening or not happening in my life right now, I still feel blessed. I am healthy and my family is healthy. I have a roof over my head, a comfortable bed, food, and love. Besides, I was the one who resigned from my job, so I did bring this unemployed situation unto myself. I can’t really complain, can I? Just the fact that I can post this blog entry is already something to be thankful for. It means that I am here, with coherent thoughts (okay, so the coherence aspect is dodgy), I have not succumbed to seasonal depression, and I have the means to go online at anytime that I please. I have also recently posted my profile on Monster.com and have already gotten two employer views. Sure, that’s not something to be extremely thrilled about, but it’s a start. So even with the inevitable tax season and pending bills, life is not bad at all. A job will be found one way or another and bills will be paid. For as long as me and my family are healthy, everything is all right.

Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened.
– Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9.