4381

No, I disagree. The consequences of not paying your taxes are pretty dire. This is not a good ‘teachable’ moment, imo. There are other less risky ways of learning financial management than fucking up your witholding :)

4382

I never found that to be the case. I’m not a tax lawyer, but I believe the IRS allows you to underpay a certain amount per year provided you meet other requirements like not doing it two years in a row. At the income level of a student or young person there’s a lot less risk that you’ll end up with enormous penalties and fines.

4383

That would be news to me, as I’ve never heard of the IRS allowing you to underpay your taxes. Particularly if you didn’t work with them before they were owed. In a student’s case, even owing 1K is a lot of money vs getting money back.

4384

Yeah I’m talking about lack of penalties for underpayment less than $1000. That’s what I thought you meant by dire consequences. Not being able to scrounge up the cash for the underpayment is another thing, but that’s why you do it right in the first place. For most wage slaves it’s no more than 5 minutes with a withholding calculator and updates during the year if your situation changes dramatically. Other people with crazy things going on might want to be more conservative.

Anyway, I can’t think of anything less interesting than the fucking IRS. Sorry for the tangent, everyone.

4385

Why do withholding at all then? Don’t pay your taxes till April and all that money is earning interest for you!

I’m just too lazy to worry about such a small amount of money. If I was going to end up owing a few hundred, I wouldn’t bother to fix that either. It’s just not worth my time, just like it’s not worth the effort to switch banks for a half-percent more interest. The government takes what they take and we settle up at the end of the year.

4386

Because he would be penalized for under withholding. The IRS will not allow you to not have any taxes withheld (if you are paid through salary/contract…people who are self-employed are under different rules).

4387

My wife underpaid our taxes last year by $600 and we got hit with a few fines and penalties, so I am not sure how true this is.

4388

Hmm… I have no idea whether that’s true here too. Most people who talk about over or under-withholding have some sort of variable income.

4389

That’s right, blame the wife…

4390

This discussion should probably be moved to the “Tell us what tax savings you have (that are interesting)” thread.

In non-tax related news, I started my 10k runs on December 29th and as of yesterday have managed to cut nearly five minutes off my pace. The Nike+ website also promoted me to the “green” level, which means I’ve run over 250 km:

I’m pretty pleased with both results. As a bonus, no shin splints!

4391

I had one of those scenarios happen to me like they used to show in those old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials, where two people are walking along eating thier chocolate bars and slurping thier peanut butter before accidentally crashing into eachother mixing all thier food up before noting the results and tasting a bite of some delicious new creation.

I was sitting in the kitchen finishing up my meal which consisted of Taco’s and Salsa and had a small ‘Fun Size’ Butterfinger bar which I unwrapped and took a bite of. Before taking the second bite I accidentally dropped the rest of the Butterfinger in the salsa. Not being one to shy away from some wonderful new combination of flavor I scraped it out and popped it in my mouth.

It was horrible.

4392

My girlfriend and I just broke up but we still live together, with other roommates, and will for another month. Any suggestions for making the next month work?

We have separate rooms, which helps, and our apt is large, but damn, space is needed, yo.

In other news, any SF area Qt3ers know of a room for rent? =)

4393

Damn, that sucks. No, I have no advice for making it work, my only advice is don’t. Find somewhere else to crash and only go there when you need something. It was bad enough being in the same house and hearing my ex sob for one night, I can’t imagine doing it for a month.

4394

This didn’t so much happen to me, but to the gaming society I’m in in University. The convention we’re running this weekend got an article in the third biggest national newspaper.

Pretty exciting stuff for us. Especially as previously they mentioned the dangers of gaming and painted us all in a negative light.

4395

When my Ex-Wife and I broke up, I lived in the basement for about a month until I lined up a place to stay. I just made sure to note when she would be around, then schedule a gaming session on my DS with the headphones on, that and I drank a beer or two as soon as I got home to take the edge off so I didn’t get bothered by the fact that she was close.

4396

Better yet, stab her and blame it on the other roommates.

4397

He also pooped in her shoes.

Or at least he should have.

4398

Shhh, she may be a lurker here… ;)

4399

My kid and I won his Cub Scout Pack’s pinewood derby tonight!

Our Batmobile: http://twitpic.com/109xwy

I was utterly shocked! I haven’t done any woodworking since 8th grade (that was 1978, kids!) but managed to carve something Batmobilish with a Dremel. Then my son painted it and glued LEGOs all over it. Didn’t even start it until the day before we had to turn it in.

On our hallway test drives, it pulled to the left. We had fun putting it together, but figured the best we’d get would be some of the other kids saying it looked cool.

But no, it beat 44 other cars with a scale speed of 156 mph! :)

4400

That looks pretty badass Denny, good going, and congrats!