what a difference a few days makes. grrrrr....
after much frustration, i finally finished my taxes. am i the last one to do so? my guess is yes. but what i currently need to vent about is my frustration with our dear old alumnus, pitt med.
oh yes, not only do i owe more than one hundred fifty THOUSAND dollars to our dear school, but, like the rest of you, i was unable to deduct tuition for the last semester because of our school's billing cycle. why, oh why, had no one told us about this little disadvantage? it basically reduces my federal income tax return by almost two THOUSAND dollars. a mere drop in the bucket, but there is a helluva lot i could do with two thousand clams.
furthermore, for those of us singletons who made no money during medical school, we could not benefit from this great higher education tax deduction while we were in school because we MADE NO MONEY. it is hard to deduct a few grand from a big fat goose egg.
sure, sure, i looked into this. i thought because i was a student for half the year i could benefit. but lo and behold, no 1098-t form arrived on my doorstep. so i called pitt, asking them about it. well, since you didn't pay any money during 2004 you didn't need one. or something like that. i asked my friend, a licensced tax preparer (i don't care if that's not a word), what to do. basically, he said, you're in a jam because of the school's billing cycle. you can't deduct it because you paid for it in 2003. AAAACCCCKKKK...i paid it dec 29. if i had waited to pay it by 3 days, it would have been 2004. did i think about this or even know about it at the time? no. am i frustrated because i need money? no. it's the PRINCIPLE! it just kills me how BAD our financial aid dept is.
anyhow. rant over. lovely talking with you again.
oh yes, not only do i owe more than one hundred fifty THOUSAND dollars to our dear school, but, like the rest of you, i was unable to deduct tuition for the last semester because of our school's billing cycle. why, oh why, had no one told us about this little disadvantage? it basically reduces my federal income tax return by almost two THOUSAND dollars. a mere drop in the bucket, but there is a helluva lot i could do with two thousand clams.
furthermore, for those of us singletons who made no money during medical school, we could not benefit from this great higher education tax deduction while we were in school because we MADE NO MONEY. it is hard to deduct a few grand from a big fat goose egg.
sure, sure, i looked into this. i thought because i was a student for half the year i could benefit. but lo and behold, no 1098-t form arrived on my doorstep. so i called pitt, asking them about it. well, since you didn't pay any money during 2004 you didn't need one. or something like that. i asked my friend, a licensced tax preparer (i don't care if that's not a word), what to do. basically, he said, you're in a jam because of the school's billing cycle. you can't deduct it because you paid for it in 2003. AAAACCCCKKKK...i paid it dec 29. if i had waited to pay it by 3 days, it would have been 2004. did i think about this or even know about it at the time? no. am i frustrated because i need money? no. it's the PRINCIPLE! it just kills me how BAD our financial aid dept is.
anyhow. rant over. lovely talking with you again.