vakkotaur | Taxes with dummies.. or is it by dummies?

I finally got around to filling out my taxes for 2002. The federal form was actually trivial, as I could telefile and let the IRS automata do the work. This went very well indeed and I now await a non-trivial sum of my money being given back to me by direct deposit.

The state taxes did not go so well. In previous years I could telefile (save once when a pension plan was ended at work - resulting in a tiny sum given to me and big headache with forms at tax time) and last year I was even able to deal with MN taxes on the web - for free. This year the form booklet makes a big deal of it "Want to throw this book away? You can with e-file!" But it's not what it seems.

To e-file in MN (which I did at no charge last year) now requires one pay a service to handle it for one. There are some free options, but one must make very little to use them. And none seem to be true web systems. The downloading and running of a special client program is required. Oh, and these programs tend to be (presumably Windows) PC only. Forget everyone else. And the big one? The one that would let some folks file free? Intuit & TurboTax. The product activation and spyware people. Not on MY machinery, damnit!

So now the state of MN gets to deal with paper just like they don't want, because I'd like all of my money back, not going into some (sleazy) third-party's pockets. Fine. I fill out the forms. Yes, plural. No more sending the W2 and/or 1099 but I get to fill out M1W with what the W2 and 1099 say. Not bad. Except, (you knew there had to be an except, didn't you?) the M1W wants the 7 digit MN state ID number. Guess what is not on the 1099? Right. No 7 digit state ID number. There are other numbers, but none are 7 digits. So instead of finishing M1W last night, I get to call US Bank today to get this 7 digit number.

I call the bank. They don't know what I'm talking about. And these people I am to trust with my money? There is discussion while I'm on hold. I'm asked for my social security number, which shouldn't be needed, but fine, they are a bank and are therefore one of the few places that has any legal right to ask. They get it. There is much bewilderment evident from the snippets I can hear while I'm on hold. Finally a person, presumably more senior at the bank, other than the one who answered my call actually gets around to talking to me, rather than about me. We talk. I mention the 7 digit number and read the text on form M1W verbatim for this person. I am asked my phone number, as they will call the main office and get back to me.

Not just too much later I get an outside call. It's the bank. Pat tells me they have the number I need. I write it down. It was a number on the 1099 form. It is not a 7 digit number. It is a 9 digit number. I point this out. Pat says they know, but the 9 digit number is what they were told to tell people. I write that down and finally finish the M1W, noting that I did call and that's the number they gave me.

So now either there is an idiot (not Pat) at US Bank who is insisting on the wrong number, or there is an idiot working the for the state of Minnesota who can't tell 7 digits from 9 digits. And then here I am, trying to be honest and good, and filling out the forms the way they say they should be filled out... and wondering if this confusion will result in less than timely refund of a smaller, but still non-trivial, amount of my money back to me.

And now I wait.

While I wait, I can plan. I plan to get a nice fast machine for to run linux on. It will probably be a (not as low end as I'd figured) Wal-Mart box, but I'm open to some suggestion. With at least two exceptions: I refuse to get either a GateWay or a Dell. The frustration level they generate is not what I desire.