Writing research question

[aderam]

When do people file taxes in the States? And (for people who have done both) are they very different from Canadian taxes?

Comments

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

April 15th, and define "very different"?

-J

[aderam.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ... And I think hobbitbabe managed to answer the second part of that question for me. I was more thinking along the lines of "is there something that I wouldn't even think of that would show right away that I didn't know what I was talking about if I didn't mention it.

(I'll admit the whole taxes thing is an in passing type of mention.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

April 15th. At our post office there was a guy standing out at the curb with a bin, so you could just drive by and chuck the thing in.

You have to do the State and Federal ones completely separately. Like I would get one package for Ohio and owe them $50 and write them a cheque, and another package for the Federal ones and they would owe me $90 and they would send it to me.

You can get all the forms at the Public Library.

Each form always starts with a little box saying "This will take you X hours and X minutes on average: y for reading the forms, z for getting the info you need, and n for filling it out".

I did not do them in the US since 1996 - they were completely on paper in those days. They looked different from the Canadian ones, but you write in the same kinds of information off your pay stubs, tuition receipts, etc. Oh, and the main form like T1-general: it is called 1040 something. Like 1040EZ is the simple version, 1040 is the more complicated version, and 1040NR is the one for people on student visas etc. And the things we call T4 that you get from your job, they are called W2 forms.

You get in trouble if you don't bother filing for a couple of years (never you mind how I know this, only for fictional authenticity am I telling you this)

[aderam.livejournal.com]

Oh excellent! I'm not sure now if I'll continue to use the taxes motif, but it's good to have the info if I need it.

Thanks!