Mark Carroll's Journal

Having already complained about the IRS expecting expats to file taxes but often requiring them to have a US telephone number, I should note that I was lucky enough to set up my EFTPS account before allowing my US cellphone plan to lapse and I have remained able to use it since.

An interesting aspect of US taxes is how individuals have many options for how to file. Some of those choices affect and may even constrain future years. In my limited experience, this is in marked difference to the UK where, as an individual, if I must file at all then I just tell them what happened and they go away and figure it out for me and explain what they did.

As a US expat, a particular set of choices is how to handle my employment income. I can try excluding it using form 2555, I can try to get credit for the tax paid using form 1116, I can try deducting that tax on Schedule A, etc. (I itemize because I can deduct my mortgage interest.) Furthermore, I can combine these: e.g., excluding part of the income then applying another form to the pro-rated remainder. Then, I get to try out different form 1040 tax worksheets to see how it works out in each case. So far, I've not needed form 1116 but it's always worth checking. Annoyingly, a few years ago they changed the law such that I can't deduct UK council tax, though at least my reading of the US-UK tax treaty suggests that I can deduct my payroll-deducted pension contributions. (There's also a social security treaty that can be useful for self-employment tax.)

( Listening to old music )

( Playing more with AI/LLMs. )

( Money is tight. )

It occurred to me to try to remember all fifty states of the US. I thought I would do better, I could recall only forty-seven, my daughter did better and faster. I shan't disclose which I forgot in case a reader wants to try. It was annoying to note those I did forget: a reader here lives in one and I was open to moving to it a few years ago, and I used to work with a couple of people who hail from another.

It was interesting to hear of the flight chaos caused by London Heathrow's power loss, so many flights diverted and passengers ending up all over Western and Central Europe. That must have caused all sorts of problems and taken the airlines quite some effort to recover from.

We had a pet food delivery from Amazon (insert hisses and boos to taste) shortly after half-past seven on a Sunday morning which impressed neither me nor R. At a glance, I failed to find a summary on their website of when they think is reasonable to make residential deliveries but at least we now know that it may happen again.

I was thinking how tricky interest rate calculations might be for institutions. One typically wants to quote an annual percentage but give interest more often than that. In terms of how the payments add up to the annual total, we certainly don't want that sum to be less than the quoted percentage but we would also rather it be as low as possible. Yet, when we pay interest, it's not like we pay exactly a twelfth root or whatever, or probably even calculate roots as precisely as we could, and we somehow round each payment to probably just a couple of places depending on the currency we're using. Further, absent withdrawals, the interest payments increase steadily due to compounding. In practice, I wonder how institutions deal with such payment calculations where each is rounded yet what matters is the sum of the payments.

There was some frost on the grass when I took our dog L. out this morning, I expect some tomorrow too. In taking him out in the evening, typically I've seen the recently full moon, sometimes early in the morning too. I suppose the moon's times will move on and I won't much see it for a while again. If I bring out L.'s large jacket, rather than small harness, then he runs away so I suppose he still thinks it's not too cold.

We put the flat back up for sale, still no offers coming, we'll probably give up again soon. Still, it would be great to move somewhere better to walk L., maybe also nearer our youngest's school. Even if our flat is unusually large and bright, there are plenty of others for sale in the neighbourhood. In the meantime, money's tight, partly because we're still paying off furnishing the place when we moved in. It's difficult to settle when we don't intend to remain.

( Work remains busy, bringing my first project nearer delivery. )

( British unemployment benefit isn't generous. )

( I filed my US taxes but am not holding my breath for the refund. )

( Tax paperwork for charity donation irritated me. )

( Me and our dog are both heavier. )

( We are looking to move just a little south. )

I am not managing to read others' journals anywhere near as completely as I once did. Perhaps if I post rather more briefly, I will get around to posting at all. It's been very many weeks. I will try to mention the occasional random things, even if the picture of things as a whole is left even more incomplete than before.

When applying to universities for my first degree, I largely targeted four-year courses in theoretical physics. I achieved A grades in A-level pure maths, applied maths, physics, and was most curious about fundamental physics. I am not a genius but I am interested and capable, I could have hoped to understand plenty and figure out at least something more.

What actually happened is that I noticed that the University of Cambridge's tripos system at the time allowed me to apply for computer science, switch to natural sciences after the first year, and still do as much mathematics and physics as the physicists. I considered applying for maths there instead but did not want the hassle of caring about STEP papers on top of my examination load (I actually took four A-levels and another GCSE).

Once studying at Cambridge, I was bothered by that, in the final term of my freshman year, we were getting ongoing updates from physics lecturers about what may or may not be examinable. It turned out that they were in the midst of redesigning the physics course. Then, the mock examination was far easier than the real final. Reasoning that they were incompetently making up a new undergraduate course as they went along, I bailed and stuck with computer science, rather than remain among their year of guinea pigs.

The above is background for: I never lost my curiosity about physics, even though I know that, by the time I might plausibly get to study properly, I will be decades behind others and my faculties will be waning. I read things about, say, parity violation and the weak force: how we have only left-handed neutrinos that experience only that force, that it doesn't affect right-handed electrons, etc., and there is such a sense of what is going on? that demands explanatory hypotheses investigated using maths and computing. I envy those who get to search for the answers even though, regarding the greenness of grass, I probably took the better-paid option.

I was reviewing my papers and discovered a misfiled 1099-S from 2022, I had put it in the house file instead of the higher-priority tax file. The IRS haven't seemed to mind that I hadn't noticed it but it does mean that I am supposed to report it on Form 8949, which will be easy in this case: it's about the sale of my main home, in which I lived long enough to adjust the whole gain away, and I am already using Schedule D anyway.

In consequently reviewing last year's US tax return, I also realized that I may be able to claim a bit more than I had, by adjusting Form 2555 a little and combining it with a Form 1116, so the effort is probably worthwhile. I should probably have done this in 2012 also but never mind, it's far too late now. Last year's taxes were always going to be tricky but this year's should be far simpler.

One thing that I find odd about US tax law is how much is left to the filer to decide in non-trivial strategy, much a here are the rules, now play the game and try to win the most, made worse by the fact that a decision in one tax year may constrain the available options in later years. Though I shan't attempt it, it even works backward: at first glance, my use of Form 1116 in 2022 looks to enable me to amend my 2021 return to claim more back, but that way madness lies.

So, this weekend, I plan to figure an amended 2022 return, including the missing but inconsequential Form 8949 and also using Form 1116 to improve my situation, and post that off to Austin, TX. I shall probably not have to face anything worse than a couple of worksheets, fortunately I don't have qualified dividends or the like.

My previous experience with do-it-yourself is rather modest. I might do a little regrouting of tiles, filling and repainting minor damage to interior walls, a bit of drilling to route cables or reposition latches or whatever, but not much. Now that it is R. and I together then, between us, recent jobs have included replacing a failed ceiling light fixture and a broken front door lock. Money is tight so every saving on tradespeople is welcome and, with R.'s help and encouragement, it is good to feel able to do more simple jobs around the home.

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.

Having moved house, and with the associated shake-up in finances, I am now bringing my spending to some order and that includes opening another account. I decided to try Barclays, not having banked with them previously as, back in Dundee when I was last reorganizing accounts, at that time they had no local branch. Here, they have a branch near us.

First impressions are more entertaining than encouraging. Making the appointment to open the account took three telephone calls, each with tedium of automated menu systems and voice recognition that starts out with no idea of what I am saying. As R. doesn't have a year's UK address history, the website doesn't allow starting an online application but the call centre staff appear not to know this. I eventually reached somebody who explained that the software needs fixing and they have mentioned this many times but nobody cares to actually fix it.

Anyhow, I made an appointment for one day at one branch then received a call asking to move it to a different day at a different branch, which was fine. When we turned up, the front door was broken, we had to go around to the back of the block, up plenty of stairs, then were led through the interior down past the front door and into a meeting room. The person whom our appointment was with was not available, we had a perfectly adequate and apologetic substitute, who ran into various computer issues, including having to take a break upstairs for reboots and relogins and suchlike. Then, they got to deal with a strange error being thrown by their Android application. I also got to surprise them by being their first to answer yes to if I am a US citizen.

We do now have an account open and I am most curious to see if the road ahead includes more glitches.

Update: On going through the paperwork afterward, I noticed that the member of bank staff who had opened our account had handwritten our resulting account number for us with one digit wrong.