“How long can we parry this madness?”

AHEM! (Epson 10000XL.)

We’re not young — both age 65.
Yesterday (Saturday, April 4, 2009) I began doing the New York State Income-Tax. (Federal is done — they owe us a slew of money; too much.)
—1) No NY state taxbook this year, nor forms, nor anything. This was despite my not checking off the “no tax-forms” box last year (see undeniable proof pictured above).
Linda said no NY state taxforms were received for mailing at the Post-office this year.
Usually the tax-forms are your annual Happy New-Year present.
IRS but no NY state.
Okay, fiddle with NY state tax-form from previous year, and the instruction-book is a PDF.
Bring up the page ya need, and eye that. Print if need be. (Forget the whole stinkin’ kabosh; 100 pages.)
Easier said than done.
A search for the needed page in that giant PDF is a hairball — crank the page number into the search-window, and it brings up every instance of that number; page or not. “Page 16” gets no results.
What’s Granny gonna do? “Computers; I sure am glad you understand ‘em!” —A bet a slew of Grannies don’t even have a ‘pyooter.
“Have ya checked the Alumni web-site yet? We got one, ya know.”
“That’s just great, Jerry. All I need now is a computer!”
—2) Under incomes, Line “14 other (see page 16) identify.”
Okay, fire up page 16 out of the massive PDF file.
Examples are given of Line 14 (other income) and Line 19 (other expenses); “A-3 $250, A-4 $685 , and S-8 $1,000.”
The A’s are under income, and S’s under expense; “so I guess ‘A’ equals addition, and ‘S’ equals subtraction.” —No indication thereof.
“‘3 and 4’ I have no idea, so guess what, you guys. I’m gonna do ‘1 and 2.’ Ya shouldn’t have to be trained as an accountant to fathom these mysteries, plus I bet if ya had six different accountants, ya’d get six different ways to do this.”
—3) We have three different sources of prepay deductions: -a) the post-office payroll deduction; -b) a deduction from the Social Security (robbing Peter to pay Paul); and -c) a deduction from Linda’s pension-payment.
-1) There is no Social Security deduction for N.Y. state income-tax, since Social Security isn’t taxable; and -2) we don’t deduct from my pension, since it’s small, and thereby we only have to figure a deduction for a single pension, Linda’s.
Some time ago the pension deduction for N.Y. state income-tax was $38 per month, but we increased it to $71 to cover the N.Y. state income-tax liability.
Linda did this online, since we can. I figured the $71 myself; total tax liability divided by 12 monthly pension payments.
Fire up the Thomson retirement site, and it says the N.Y. state deduction is $71 — yet the bank who administers her pension never changed it from $38.
As a result, the amount deducted was way low, and we have to pay a penalty.
“They’re making me mad,” Linda said. “It was them that screwed up. The ones that should pay that penalty is them.
Seems I had to fiddle something similar last year. Thomson claimed my healthcare insurance copay was being deducted, yet the bank wasn’t doing that.
Finally I gave up. Thomson insisted it was being deducted — but it wasn’t.
I had to move heaven-and-earth to get the bank to cover their butts, but finally they did.
Thomson will insist $71 is being deducted, but that’s not what our stubs say, nor our 1099s.”
89 bazilyun phonecalls to pull teeth: “Please hold during the silence: ‘BOOM-chicka-BOOM-chicka-BOOM-chicka-BOOM-chicka.’ We value your call. It will be answered in the order it was received. We estimate only three hours.”
“El-oooooooooooo; India answering........”
“I guess I better advise my friends who are about to retire from Thomson to watch their pension payments like a hawk,” Linda said.
“The bank can screw up, and then claim it was your fault.”
How much longer can we parry all this madness?

“Linda” is my wife of 41+ years. Like me she’s retired, but she works part-time at the West Bloomfield post-office.

“PDF” is “portable-document-format,” a computer-file that can’t be edited (unless it’s “editable”).

“‘Pyooter” is computer.

The so-called “Alumni” are the union retirees (Local 282, the Rochester local of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union) of Regional Transit Service in Rochester, N.Y. (For 16&1/2 years [1977-1993] I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service [RTS], the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY.) The Alumni was a reaction to the fact Transit management retirees ran roughshod over union retirees — a continuation of the bad vibes at Transit: management versus union. Transit had a club for long-time employees, and I was in it. It was called the “15/25-year Club;” I guess at first the “25-year Club.” But they lowered the employment requirement, and renamed it “15/25-year Club.” The employment requirement was lowered even more; I joined at 10 years. My employ there ended in 1993 with my stroke (I had a stroke October 26, 1993); and the “Alumni” didn’t exist then. The Alumni is a special club — you have to join. It has a web-site. (Turn off your sound.) —It was constructed by Alumni member Jerry Merkel.

Linda’s final employer was “Thomson Publications,” which bought her previous long-time employer, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing in Rochester. Their Human Resources Department is outsourced.