Two down, two to go.
Well, I think I have all of my U.S. taxes in the bag. This leaves two more returns to fill out (Canada Revenue and Ontario), but at least they're not due until the 30th. The returns were not as painful as I expected--not to say they were easy--it sucked trying to figure out where on a 1040 to declare my paltry Canadian graduate student stipend, even with tax software. The IRS taxes income earned abroad if you were not a full time resident in a foreign country, basically--I think I'll be exempted next year. But it reminds me of the Monty Python skit in which a banker suggests levying a tax on 'all foreigners living abroad.'
Anyway, a nice surprise from completing my taxes was finding out my IRS refund was twice as large as in recent years. That's probably the result of working 8 months, then leaving for graduate school, while my withholding rate was set for 12 months of income (and the commensurate tax bracket). Especially nice since nowadays my earned income other than stipend roughly matches my dental expenses.
I so desperately want to be done with this semester, and for it to be summer. Weather last week was 'sit on the patio and drink beer with friends' nice. There is a whole lot of interesting research that I want to work on--stuff I can really sink my teeth into, and feel some accomplishment. But I need to finish a final project/paper for my class.
Also, I have a big pile of travelling this summer--and for a change, none of it's for work! I am definitely starting to feel guilty about taking advantage of the open graduate school schedule. Then again, after I graduate, it will probably be back to the few-weeks-a-year-of-vacation life, so I guess I'll enjoy it while I can.
- San Francisco Bay Area (just hanging out after the semester ends; April-May)
- Boston, for mentor/former boss's black tie 50th birthday (early May)
- Ottawa, for a conference, and hanging out at Chief Grad Student's family's lake cottage (May)
- Montreal (road trip with psycho security guard), to Boston (for two weddings; late May)
- Probably New York to see my parents, while I'm within 300 miles (June)
- Seward, Alaska (conference and vacationing. Yay frequent flyer miles.) (June)
- Yet another Boston trip (conference) (early August)
posted by Bats @ 10:30 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Whoa--there are still ways to deduct taxes on Canadian income even when you weren't a full-year resident. There's the Canada-US tax treaty, for example. I might be able to find my tax return from the year I moved here.
You also get an automatic extension by virtue of living outside the US.
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