Getting more done, including tax return
Feb. 24th, 2019 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcSince my work started going better I have indeed managed to be more productive at home though the crab-apple tree escapes pruning until a drier afternoon. I renewed and installed the server-side certificates. Despite having also walked all over Dundee yesterday, this past week I did not skip any workouts; it was early November that I last had a week like that. I have now drafted our US tax return for last year; I shall write more about that:
With our Form 1040 I now believe that we must file schedules 1, 3, 6, B, C, D along with Form 2555, 2555-EZ and 8949;mst3kmoxie has yet to check my draft. There were a few other forms that we could have had to file but didn't because we satisfied certain criteria, mostly that the relevant numbers were below the thresholds of interest. There were a few questions that I would not have been sure how to answer except for being reasonably able to construe our finances such that the distinctions were without a difference.
To give an example of but one of many paths through the previously mentioned twisty maze that I was obligated to follow: On Form 1040, because I reported qualified dividends on line 3a and am filing Form 2555, the instructions for line 11a specify that I must use the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet to figure our tax. However, that worksheet tells me not to complete it if Form 1040 line 10 is zero, which it is. What I am supposed to do instead is not specified. It is only by broader but implicit wider indications that I infer that I should simply enter
As always, while living in Britain we never come close to owing tax to the US Treasury: all this careful reporting is required but irrelevant. Because of the foreign earned income exclusion our total income is always far below our standard deduction.
With our Form 1040 I now believe that we must file schedules 1, 3, 6, B, C, D along with Form 2555, 2555-EZ and 8949;
mst3kmoxie has yet to check my draft. There were a few other forms that we could have had to file but didn't because we satisfied certain criteria, mostly that the relevant numbers were below the thresholds of interest. There were a few questions that I would not have been sure how to answer except for being reasonably able to construe our finances such that the distinctions were without a difference.To give an example of but one of many paths through the previously mentioned twisty maze that I was obligated to follow: On Form 1040, because I reported qualified dividends on line 3a and am filing Form 2555, the instructions for line 11a specify that I must use the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet to figure our tax. However, that worksheet tells me not to complete it if Form 1040 line 10 is zero, which it is. What I am supposed to do instead is not specified. It is only by broader but implicit wider indications that I infer that I should simply enter
0for line 11. Most of completing the forms is quite mechanical: for instance, I copy the number from Form 1099-DIV box 7 over to Schedule 3 line 48, carry it through to line 55 then add it in to line 12 of Form 1040; I just have to read plenty to find all the relevant instructions.
As always, while living in Britain we never come close to owing tax to the US Treasury: all this careful reporting is required but irrelevant. Because of the foreign earned income exclusion our total income is always far below our standard deduction.
