A word of advice: never, ever, move from one state to another in the middle of the year. It's just not worth the agony. State tax forms are clearly designed for the sole purpose of keeping entire vast departments of pallid, cackling, subterranean accountants employed, checking line after line of typo-ridden and archaic instructions to see where you messed up and then sending out bizarre and incomprehensible forms which never quite make clear the nature of your transgression, but which are very, very explicit as to the torments that await you should you fail to correct it.
Massachusetts: �From Line 18 and write the greater amount here� is not a complete sentence. Nor does it quite convey what one might be expected to do. One could, of course, consult the lengthy instruction booklet to get more information, were it not for the fact that the instruction booklet skips every single line about which there is the slightest confusion, confining itself instead to repeating the instructions for filling items out completely in black ink, signing every page (the better to convict you with, my dear!) and affixing the proper mailing label.
Oh, and New York State? I figured out your little game. You know, the one that goes:
Form 1, line 45: fill in amount from Form 2, line 50...
Which can only be figured once you get past Form 2, line 12...
Where you have to fill in amount from Form 1, line 45...
Which depends on Form 2, line 50...
Which can only be figured once you get past Form 2, line 12...
Where you have to fill in amount from Form 1, line 45...
Which depends on Form 2, line 50...
etc.
Well played, both of you, but I've beaten you at last! I have finished my taxes and (knock on wood, turn around three times, spit on a virgin goat), if I did indeed fill out all my forms and schedules correctly, I can expect a nice refund come August 2004 or so. Because, you know, it takes time for them to process your dreadful, messy tax form. What�s wrong with you? Why do you want to make trouble for the nice accountants?
Posted by hilatron at April 6, 2003 03:58 PM