Useful Work

[mallorys_camera]

There is quite a bit I will miss about this area, and one of those things is how incredibly beautiful it is. These swamps do something to my heart.

So yesterday at VITA, I got this kid $1,000 extra dollars as a tax refund by finding an educational credit that no one else picked up. He was eligible for it last year as well so he can come back in and get his 2010 taxes amended and pick up another grand.

His parents are Cambodian. Having just seen The Killing Fields, I naturally put together a complicated scenario in my head of how they got out of Cambodia, their many years in a refugee camp on the Thai border. They were intellectuals, I decided. That means they probably spoke English when they came over but probably didn’t read it well enough to pick up the professions they were trained for – doctor, nurse, my imagination decided – so picked up jobs as food service employees. I flashed briefly on the Serbian gentleman I met while I was working for the census.

In my fantasy, the kid I got the money for goes back to Cambodia, becomes involved in politics there, and somehow manages to improve life for the citizenry. A hundred years in the future they all eat more protein, they’re taller, they live longer, and all because I was able to get this kid a thousand extra dollars on his 2011 tax return!

Thus do the ripples in the stream push time and human betterment forward…

I love doing this VITA stuff. It’s useful work. And I’m really good at it.

Being really good at something useful has been sadly missing from my life these two and a half years past. Feels really, really good to reconnect with that. Corny but true.

Comments

[a1icey.livejournal.com]

that is so perfect.

ironically the tax man owes me money ($100) but I'm not going to file for it.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. Are your parents declaring you as a dependent? Can they declare you as a dependent? You really should file -- if you're paying your own tuition with loan money, you get a $1000 opportunity credit which is cash in your pocket.

[a1icey.livejournal.com]

sorry to be depending on you for this but is that a refundable credit? i only paid 100 in taxes last year as my income was below the threshold, but one employer miss-filed my W-4 and refused to correct it.

so i can only get the opportunity credit if it is a refundable credit.. i think.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Depends upon whether you are paying your own tuition.

If you're paying your own tuition, then yes there is something called the American OpportunityTax Credit which is a refundable prorated credit. If you're paying the max in tuition, $4000 or above, you should be able to get $1,000 back. That's the credit I got the Cambodian kid.

And if you're taking out loans to pay your tuition, you're paying your tuition yourself.

When you say "misfiled" yr W2, what exactly was entailed?

[a1icey.livejournal.com]

oh, man, it made me so mad... so I knew I wasn't going to make more than about 2,000 last year so I didn't want any tax witheld. Also I am a full time student so I didn't qualify for any social security or medicare payments either. When I filled out the form for my first employer I filled it out so that it said all this [edit: state forms too] - and I got 100% of my paychecks. Then I submitted the same exact form to my second employer, along with a ton of other forms. When I got my first paycheck of 500$ from them, 100 dollars in taxes medicare and social security had been deducted. They didn't even manage to log me as a full time student. I begged and begged and harrassed them to change my W-4 and pay me the money they had incorrectly witheld. They didn't want to deal with it so they ignored my calls. I think I can only get back the taxes if I file, I forget what subset it was. By that point i needed the money so badly that I just cashed the check (it had been about 4 months since I did the work in question).

I haven't even filed a W-4 for this year. What's the point? They're taking most of my money anyway. I just work for free now and make up the difference by sweet-talking my dad.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

No, no, no, no, silly girl. The only mistakes the IRS cares about are social security # errors or handwritten W2s that look like forgeries. If you paid your own tuition, you really should file. Even if you didn't pay yr own tuition, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. Do you really want the federal government to keep your money?

[a1icey.livejournal.com]

even though i pay my own tuition, i don't think i qualify for the education credits for some reason, i remember studying them and there's some sort of exception that applies to me.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

It's a refundable credit, yes, if you are eligible for it i.e. paying for your own educational expenses.

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

I'm glad. :-)

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie. Hope you're well.

[ccjohn.livejournal.com]

You are moving, then?

I hear you on good work. The feeling of having completed something good, useful can be there for you when other things are not.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely moving. There are things I could have done in Ithaca to make myself more rooted here, but I didn't do them. I suppose I was too depressed.

And you're moving too, I think, gleaning between the lines of yr often cryptic LJ. To NYC? I love NYC!

[ccjohn.livejournal.com]

To NYC, yeah. I'm excited! That's home, even though I'll have to start from scratch in certain ways. Too bad it is happening in reverse: in 1987 when I first moved there, it went (a) close deal on job, irrevocable; (b) move. This time: (a) have closed on apartment, irrevocable; (b) closing the deal on job, second. Should know pretty fast. It's as close to a lock as you get these days. The inversion of (a) and (b) -- seems it is the same trouble for a lot of people these days.

Heh. The most recent crytic stuff, I have a rare and unusual reason. Was hoping someone would ask. And that people still keep up on national campaign developments. I will explain if you feel like coming by.

I hear you on your first sentence. It pings me. But I, didn't want to be rooted here. Maybe you didn't want to be rooted there? So now, we can say it was a positive choice, to stay detached. I've stayed depressed the whole time I've been here. I knew coming here it was a terrible match. Did not come here voluntarily.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I never think it's a good idea to be detached from your immediate environment. Be Here Now, and all of that. When the time comes to leave, you should leave. But you should always celebrate the moment.

No, I was depressed because I was alone so much and dealing with being piss broke and a difficult, difficult divorce. And also all the stuff that comes from having once been a beautiful woman and now being old. Definitely not a good detachment. I wasn't in control of it at all.

[katestine.livejournal.com]

YAAY!!!!

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

:-)

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful to hear, good for you. I feel dopey for asking this, but is that a photograph or one of your drawings up there?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

It's a much-Photoshopped photograph. I wrote to someone else on these boards that I'm experimenting with ways to do graphic novels that aren't so labor-intensive i.e. that don't have to be drawn by hand. So I'm trying to make photos look like drawings.

[lethe1]

I wanted to reply "I'm glad" and then I saw that anais_pf already said that. But anyway, I'm glad! :)