Please forgive me, and please don't judge me: I didn't realize that the state of Minnesota gives a standard deduction on income.
I was making one final pass-through of all my returns because I plan on sending them later today. And I was looking at my state tax return and I saw the words, in bold, standard deduction. Wait, I said to myself -- states are allowed to give standard deductions, too?!
Holy shit, that changes everything. I was going to pay $846 in state taxes (and then I was going to complain about it here). With the amended calculation, I now owe only $28.
I swear this is the first time I realized that the state gives standard deductions. That made my mind race back to last year's return; I didn't take my deduction then either, did I? Thank Buddha I still have a copy of that, because I looked at my 2018 state return and nope, I totally overlooked the standard deduction I got then, too. So now I need to file an amendment to claw back some of the money I gave to the state last year. (Aside: I have made a mistake on my taxes before -- many years ago on the federal side. I don't remember the details, but I was determined to go back to that past year and amend that return, but ... shit, I don't remember why I didn't do it. Either I couldn't find my past return in storage so I couldn't find the details or I just got busy and/or lazy and I forgot.)
I pride myself on being able to do taxes on my own. But a tax preparer sure as shit wouldn't miss out on something as obvious, and as important, as a standard deduction that means a savings of over $800. The only thing I am glad of is that no one else knows -- well, besides all of you reading this.
I was making one final pass-through of all my returns because I plan on sending them later today. And I was looking at my state tax return and I saw the words, in bold, standard deduction. Wait, I said to myself -- states are allowed to give standard deductions, too?!
Holy shit, that changes everything. I was going to pay $846 in state taxes (and then I was going to complain about it here). With the amended calculation, I now owe only $28.
I swear this is the first time I realized that the state gives standard deductions. That made my mind race back to last year's return; I didn't take my deduction then either, did I? Thank Buddha I still have a copy of that, because I looked at my 2018 state return and nope, I totally overlooked the standard deduction I got then, too. So now I need to file an amendment to claw back some of the money I gave to the state last year. (Aside: I have made a mistake on my taxes before -- many years ago on the federal side. I don't remember the details, but I was determined to go back to that past year and amend that return, but ... shit, I don't remember why I didn't do it. Either I couldn't find my past return in storage so I couldn't find the details or I just got busy and/or lazy and I forgot.)
I pride myself on being able to do taxes on my own. But a tax preparer sure as shit wouldn't miss out on something as obvious, and as important, as a standard deduction that means a savings of over $800. The only thing I am glad of is that no one else knows -- well, besides all of you reading this.
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