Taxing My Memory

Oh, ef me.

I started my taxes yesterday and printed out the completed forms last night after typing the data in online. Hey, I'm not totally old school even though I use paper and the US Mail to submit my tax forms.

I left the forms and instructions up on my computer over night, figuring I'd walk away and then check the printed copies today for any errors today. Then I can just copy them and mail them. Or correct errors and reprint them.

Well, I thought I could do that until I opened up the Internet Explorer window for that series of pages to find an error message saying that the inputs were gone and that I should contact the person who made them in order to see them. For all of my forms at the state and federal level.

That helpful suggestion would be a problem to use, for obvious reasons.

Oh well, maybe I don't have any entry or math errors on all my forms.

If I spelled my name wrong, or something equally stupid, I'm going to be really annoyed.

Maybe I have some white-out that didn't dry up some time in the 1990s?

Funny enough, I had just seen a headline about a looming solar storm potentially affecting us here on Earth and it occurred to me that I shouldn't leave my forms up there for long. Apparently, we don't need an Electronic Apocalypse to affect me personally on the Internet.

UPDATE: Well, I only messed up one state form, failing to transfer numbers from another form to it. Not that it changed the final number at all, but the paperwork must be filed.

And as an aside, what a renewed joy it is to use a computer again with a fully functional left mouse button. It's amazing what you get used to if the pain is gradually increased. Hey, this is a tax post, after all.