My dad died in December. I realized last week I forgot to file his 2011 state income tax return. In April my ex-wife guided me through paying an estimate and filing for an extension of his federal income tax return. We just didn't think of the state.
I went to the Franchise Tax Board website and found a place to write in a question. I asked them what to do. I received a long form letter explaining the options and obligations of a decedent's survivors (spouse, trust, or executor) and that those obligations were due on April 15th. The form did not address my question.
I wrote again. I'll get an answer next week. It's too soon to anticipate getting the same useless response but it wouldn't shock me.
I dug around and looked at a form. My brain glazed over within seconds. Legally binding documents have to be very, very clear. I understand as an engineer why very, very clear documents are actually impenetrable to people not trained in reading them. So the forms are useless to me. I need someone to just tell me what to write on the check. I suppose I'll dig up such a person eventually.
Eventually. I'm not mustering any concern. In other words, I don't really give a shit. But I will have to eventually. The federal deadline is October. Got to do his taxes somehow or other before then. It seems unlikely. My ex-wife is willing (and able) to do it. But I have to find some things first. I cannot find those things. The things are pieces of paper sent by various institutions that have amounts of money printed on them. I do not track such things well. This is why I use an ATM card.
The forward motion of my life is increasingly impeded by unfinished business. This includes not yet getting divorced. But it also includes not getting rid of the massive pile of material objects that my father left behind. Prior to that must be closing out his estate and distributing it according to his will. I fear I am being very un-grownup by not taking care of these things. It seems I must spend an evening at home for once, dig through piles of disordered papers, and find certain ones before anyone can even help me. I've done that, actually, and didn't find the things I sought. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't at least once try again.
The big local music festival has started, and I really want to go down and check it out. There is an urgency to going tonight when I have the chance to go by myself that I am not going to try and explain. But it is very real and seems more important than these matters of paper and bureaucracy. Again, I am probably -- not certain about this -- being very un-grownup. But people and experience are more important than things and money. I am lacking the former, and not so much the latter. The choice, if looked at through a glass, seems fairly clear.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
My father's finances got all upfucked, but he didn't have much and paid a tax penalty. Now things are screwed up again and I'm trying to work them out. I've found the govt peeps less unhelpful than the greedy private industry assholes frankly. At least you know the govt peeps are probably just dumb or bored or lazy when they make an error, but they're not trying to fuck you over. The private company assholes though will relentlessly grab and claw, and you can't look away for a second. It's fucking exhausting.
Brother, I think you're gonna have to spend more than one night at home doing this stuff. Yep, you are doomed.
These are a lot of major changes to process at once - divorce, loss of a parent. It'll get sorted out eventually, and yes, you should stay sufficiently on top of it to avoid paying huge fines or, yanno, going to jail. But apart from that, cut yourself slack, I say.
Taxes. Grrrr. "This task is mandatory. The instructions we're going to give you for it are utterly incomprehensible and needlessly complex. If you do it wrong, we will punish you." Imagine if we parented our children this way?
Post a Comment