I finally got around to finishing the final drafts of all my forms. I usually either get or print out two of each form I need, the first to do all the rough and dirty calculations and then, after I feel as though I've got all the numbers right, I use the second copy as the final copy (although, to be honest, for some very simple forms, such as the federal HSA schedule and the state form I am supposed to write down all the state withholding, I usually am good with doing only one). However, because I made a slight screw-up with adding up how much state withholding I had, that particular amount on the M1 I filled out on that second/final copy was off by a buck.
I could just turn that one in. I've done that before, filing a return that has a big "X" crossing out an amount and another amount written right next to it. But pride and paranoia that the IRS will come down on me for handing in such a sloppy return compel me to get a third M1. And my mindset as of right now is that I want to find that M1 this workweek, despite me having the test scoring project in the evening. Another wrinkle for this week: I am filling in for a couple people, so my shift is shifted up a half-hour. That means I get out of work a half-hour earlier than I usually do, which should give me more time to find an M1 and get home in order to eat dinner and take a quick nap before my evening job.
I don't know how it is in other states (and I like to think this is a Minnesota/blue state thing), but some library branches actually print out paper copies of the most popular federal and state tax forms for you to pick up. I have never filed electronically and, even though I maybe should, I have no plans to change as of now, so picking up these paper copies are a huge convenience, and it makes me like libraries all the more. But finding out which branches offer the M1 now seems to be a hunt, if not a wild goose chase.
I know the library I go to the most has the M1. But it's kind of a drive for me from work to get there. So I am looking and hoping that libraries between work and home would have one. Tried that after work yesterday at a branch in a county adjacent to the one I usually go to, and although they have copies of the 1040 forms and the instructions, they didn't have the M1. I have another library on the way home I can try, and it's in yet another different county than either one I have dropped by in order to find an M1, so I am not sure if they'll have any there. There might be another I can drop by on tomorrow, and now you're asking why I can't go to all these libraries on the same trip, and I have to reiterate that I need to get home in order to eat and take a nap before work in the evening, so this week may have to be a series of one-shots in order to capture an M1. (And I just realized that I need to get gas this week too, and so I might have to devote one after-work afternoon just to do that and thus put my M1 hunt on pause.)
If worse comes to worst, I guess I can drive all the way out to "my library" and fetch it or, if for some reason they don't have a copy of the M1, just log onto a computer and bleepin' print one out. (The Hennepin County Library system is making all printouts free, and I think they have been free since the start of the pandemic. God bless the Hennepin County Library system!) But it's be nice to just find one so I can go from work to home the rest of the week. Plus, I still have to finish up my taxes. After redoing the M1, I need to make copies -- which, come to think of it, I should do at a library sometime this work week. I then fill out my personal information (including Social Security Number), which will take some time and finger strength, before I make a time during the weekend (not Monday; everybody's going to be mailing out their returns Monday) to go the post office and physically mail my returns.
But I can't do any of those things before I find a clean sheet of an M1. Arranging the rest of my workweek hinges on getting my hands on one as soon as I can. That ain't much of a life.
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