I turned in my taxes a day early this year.

Last edited Mon Apr 15, 2024, 07:14 AM - Edit history (6)

I turned them in on April 15 last year.

As soon as I turned in my free fillable forms, I saw that I had made a mistake. I knew my first attempt would be rejected, so I hung around by the computer. I had all the numbers correct on the 1040, but I hadn't completed one of the supporting forms. The Feds got back to me in 40 minutes. I made my corrections and resubmitted.

An hour later, my second attempt was accepted.

No trees died as a result of my tax returns.

I had run the numbers on my computer Friday and took Saturday off. The amount I calculated I owed on Friday differed from the amount the IRS came up with on Sunday by one dollar. It was solely due to how numbers are rounded to whole dollars. I had rounded sums of numbers, and the IRS rounds them as they are entered.

For example, I would add, say, $1.35 plus $1.35 plus $1.35 and get $4.05, which I would round to $4. The IRS rounds the numbers as they are entered and then adds them up — $1.35 $1 plus $1.35 $1 plus $1.35 $1 — and gets $3.

Similarly, if I added $1.65 plus $1.56 plus $1.65, I'd get $4.95 and round it to $5. The IRS would add $1.65 $2 plus $1.65 $2 plus $1.65 $2 — and get $6.

In the end, that’s how far apart we were.