Looks like the tradition of paying our American taxes on April 15th has hit yet another snag. We have not paid our taxes on "Tax Day" now, for at least two years. This year that day is May 17, 2021. I think blaming COVID-19 has some benefits; it's not all bad. I decided to go ahead and be traditional, however, and to file my tax return today. I can't understand people who wait until the last minute until I am one of those people. This doesn't usually happen, but I was waiting on an employer to get around to sending me my documents. They never arrived so I decided to guesstimate it and see if I'm caught. I'm freakishly close to the right number, so even if I am caught I won't have too much to worry about.
In 2019 I was a teacher at an elementary school. There I was, doing what I do, teaching, and at the end of the day on December 2, 2019, I was called into the office rather unceremoniously, to be told that I would not be returning after the Christmas break. The school board had accepted the recommendation of the principal to not bring me back for the last half of my contract; there's a clause in the said contract that gives them the option to do that, but oh my, they didn't read the fine print. If they had done so, they would have realized that I in fact, had the option to counter! I did counter. I was not returned, but they had to pay my entire contract because they couldn't prove I had done a damn thing to warrant not being brought back after the break. No one, and I'll say that out loud, NO ONE had ever challenged them in the past. They hadn't hired me in the past; there you go. I won't be stepped on. I do bite back. I was literally let go because the veteran teachers on the same team as me, didn't want to answer questions that the kids were asking about how Bloom's Taxonomy relates to the various subjects these teachers were teaching. Oh, no, we must never allow children to be educated in the public school system - - that would be setting a dangerous president.
So, in 2020 I was paid the remainder of my contract for the school, I was given my entire teacher's retirement fund withdrawal because I wrote them to say I would never teach again. I meant it too. I may do it, but I certainly meant it at the time! I was paid a sizeable amount by the government as well for unemployment and that was before COVID hit. After the "plague" hit, as we call it here, the government, under President Trump, literally paid us too much to return to work, so I didn't return to work. I stayed unemployed quite a while in fact, so my 2020 tax return was full of strange and uncommon papers such as settlements, unemployment, government stimulus checks, and my teacher's retirement. I didn't really make any significant charitable contributions in 2020, and I didn't have medical issues to itemize either. I just had a straightforward return and decided today would be the best day to put it all together. Such a traditionalist.
I usually don't receive refunds because I owed so many taxes from years in the past when I worked with Faith, and no one got around to sending me forms that showed my income. My manager did his best, but you can't calculate and keep track of everything when you're not registered as a corporation; but you're out there making trips, doing speaking engagements, giving things away, accepting donations for dog food, etc. It's too complex, and the IRS found a way to make it more so; hence I never expected to see another tax return no matter what the TurboTax people tell me at the end of my filing adventures. This year that may change! I may actually get to keep what the good people at TurboTax claim I will receive and if so I'll live another month or so without needing to go back to work. Gotta love that. I'm hoping I can hold out long enough for the book sales to kick in and I can just up and move to Scotland without fuss.
Believe me, when I say hiring me isn't the easiest thing to do. I'm usually overqualified for most positions even if I need one desperately. Employers have a hard time keeping employees with both experience and education because they know we'll jump ship the second a "real" opportunity comes around. My agent Kevin knows this; he tends to narrow my choices for me. I don't even interview anymore unless Kevin suggests it. I haven't needed to, but that could change. I may accept, as I did last year, a really base entry-level job, just to relax and not have any responsibility on the job. I like that too. I like laying back, just pittling around, answering the phone, making copies, not being expected to run the ship, and if I do end up walking out I end up walking out; I have never really been all that devastated about losing a job for any other reason than I needed it to pay bills. That sucks. It does. We've all been there. Well, right now I'm OK with being unemployed because I'm writing and that's still working.
I make the required applications of course; I do my due diligence for the government, but no one said I had to accept anything if it's offered to me. In time maybe, but not right now. Right now I'm being as lazy as I can be so I can write, rewrite, submit, resubmit, tweak and correct my books and then start the process of writing the next one. I'm researching what it will take to move to Scotland. I'm dreaming and pretending to buy a home there. I'm shopping at their version of Home Depot (B&Q) and I'm buying groceries online (again, pretend) at Tesco, Morrison's, Aldi, Asda (their Walmart) and Sansibury markets. I'm reading reviews of restaurants in areas I would buy a terraced home. I'm considering a semi-detached home. I'm even thinking about a bungalow, but they tend to be on the edge of the streets that are a bit too busy.
I don't know about paying my taxes in Scotland. I'll have to research that as well -- for now, I'm just doing what I can to stay afloat in the good ol' U.S. of A. I did my part! I'm hoping to keep it going and be the best citizen I can be until I am an ex-pat living abroad. I can't tell you how rewarding that sounds right now. It's been a long time coming. Uncle Sam will still be my guy, I'm not giving up the red, white, and blue anytime soon - - but I do need to get back to basics and stop all this hooey and madness going on all around me. In Scotland, I can breathe and have my own opinion. There, if I piss someone off they'll blame it on me just being the American that I am - - and they would be 100% correct.
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