The cliff notes version is this:
- The government is still screwing with me for being unemployed.
- I have to pay the IRS so much money this year.
The long story is this:
- In 2011, I was unemployed for 9 months. I collected unemployment for 8 of those months.
- No taxes were taken out of my unemployment.
- No one ever told me I should be paying estimated taxes on that money.
- In 2011, I didn't have health insurance for 9 months.
- In Massachusetts, you are required by law to have health insurance or you are monetarily penalized.
- The penalty is cheaper than the health insurance.
- To get off unemployment, I took a full time job where I make LESS than I did on unemployment.
- They charge a penalty fee when your taxes are too high.
So...I had to pay tax on 8 months of unemployment with only 4 months of a crappy wage to balance it out. I had to pay a penalty to the state of Massachusetts for not having health insurance even though I never sought any medical services in those 8 months. I have to pay a penalty because my taxes were too high so the government assumes that I was at fault for filling out a W-4 incorrectly. (I didn't I was just unemployed!)
In the end, I owed $2000ish. It's a good thing that I won my unemployment hearing back in February and was awarded the money unemployment still owed me...because that is how I am paying my taxes.
To clarify: Government Part A owed me money. I had to go to a hearing at Government Part B to prove I was owed that money. Government Part C delivered that money to my house. Now I have to use Government Part A's money to pay Government Part D's taxes on said Government Part A's money.
_______________________________________
Dear Government A, B, C, and D,
I am well aware that I was unemployed but do you have to keep kicking me while I'm down? Don't get me wrong, I like roads and schools and stuff but it doesn't feel great to empty my bank account while your "people" have so much money that they can hire people to get them out of paying taxes.
XOXO,
Amy
P.S. Please don't spend my tax money on hookers...I'm looking at you Secret Service.
Because my old job is weird and is considered an "at will" employer or whatever, I wasn't eligible for COBRA and unemployment, so in a way it looks like I lucked out with all those crazy taxes. Living off our student loans and the kindness of my parents-- woot woot! That said, the only taxes I did have to pay were to Mass. who has the most complicated out of state form I've ever seen.
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