A pleasant trip to the office

Yesterday, I headed into our Edinburgh office for the first time since moving to Glasgow. Technically I am wholly remote but I like to show my face occasionally if possible, there are empty desks for visitors. There are many trains between the two cities, and the express trains take less than an hour, it turned out to be a pleasant, easy journey. I walked through Princes Street Gardens on the way to the office, and I stayed after work to socialize before heading back home. It is most welcome to see colleagues now and again and it was noted that I have been employed with them for a year. Luck held well enough for me to avoid heavy rain. The day may have tired me out: I slept late this morning and felt lethargic afterward.

Annoyance with the IRS

I realized that I have yet to provide an update here on filing last year's US taxes. Of course, I started out 2022 working in the US, I moved to Scotland as last summer started. One good thing was very unusual for me: I could use the IRS' free fillable forms. In previous years I had a paper attachment to include, and in coming years I shan't have a US telephone number but, this year, I still have the tail end of my cellphone service from living in Eastern Tennessee. Another good thing was, because of how the US and UK handle income tax, a mid-year move from the US to the UK tends to bring a refund from each. Of course, the UK remains in stark contrast to the US: I didn't even have to file anything here: shortly after the tax year ended, I simply received a letter bearing a calculation and a check.

For the IRS, a disappointing surprise was the impact of R. being my non-resident alien spouse. I had naively imagined that we would get them an ITIN and file jointly. In reality, several years ago, ITIN rules tightened rather, though it probably remains possible if we use the services of a specific tax advisor out near Falkirk. Even then, filing jointly in our situation means that R. would have to continue filing (a pain for expats in the event of self-employment, etc.) unless then opting not to, after which we could never file jointly again. Between the extra filing hassle, and the long-term impact, I opted to instead forego the higher standard deduction. I could still change my mind and amend.

Were my income from here substantially higher, the limit on the foreign earned income exclusion may incentivize us to file jointly anyway. That would be a nice problem to have but I expect it to remain hypothetical, and instead opting to claim foreign tax credit could render it moot, I've never had to investigate those details.

An appearance by the Orange Order

I hadn't realized how many Orange Order members we have locally but today we heard and saw plenty of parading, and local news suggests that there were a good few thousand people marching around the centre of Glasgow. My understanding is that the Orange Order are very much in favour of Protestantism, and of the United Kingdom staying together, and are disinclined to brook dissent on either count.