MOM MOVED TO A NEW RESIDENCE - AND WE HAD PROBLEMS TAKING HER OUT TO THE DOCTOR

 I am guessing that I have mentioned before that I have an older mom – 93 now. She has been living in a very nice assisted living residence which is run by a non-profit organization of our faith. I mention the last part of that sentence as due to same it has been a very comfortable atmosphere for her – the rabbi's wife comes in late Fridays to light the Sabbath candles, the rabbi comes by for holiday services – they have a synagogue for same, the seats are fold up chairs so the space can be used as multipurpose room – including setting up tables and chairs for a New Year's party. Each floor has on the wall 2 Sedar plates (ceremonial plates used for Passover) framed and hanging on the wall – a comforting thing to see and helps one remember at which floor to get off the elevator. Familiar traditional foods for holidays and in general are served. While the residence is non-sectarian (I had a friend who was Roman Catholic who lived there for some time before she passed away and when I would talk to her – she would talk about how nice it was (and feeling uncomfortable due to her religion to go inside she would sit outside the synagogue to hear and see the services), it is very comforting to older Jewish people to have this atmosphere of their life as it had been around them.

Unfortunately it is also rather expensive and mom (being 93) has come to the point where she no longer can afford to live there, as well as reaching the point where she needs more care. The organization also has a rehabilitation and nursing home building on the site (and are currently building apartment buildings for those who are not in the need of either type of facility, but are looking to live with some help available to them). The nursing home does not have any vacancies – but the non-profit just took over another nursing home at a different location and it did have vacancies – so last Friday my sister and her family moved mom to this nursing home.

Two months ago I had made an appointment for mom to go yesterday (Tuesday) to a doctor (the one husband and I cannot stand their disorganization). I may have mentioned that husband and I are the “mom shleppers” we take mom to her doctor appointments (except during most of the pandemic as we are limited in going out due to same, but we had to start doing so again to help out my sister). Over the past two months mom has gone for tests at this doctor's office but now she was finally going to see the doctor himself. I checked with my sister when she told me that mom was being moved as to mom continuing to see her doctors and my sister told me that it was not a problem – “you just go and pick her up – same as before”. Well, yesterday we found out – not so much.

My sister told me over the weekend that we had to be “certified” to take mom out in our car. She has spoken with mom's caseworker and it would not a be a problem – she would do it when we came to pick up mom. (Implies that she knows we are taking mom out and when?)

I called the nursing home on Monday (first business day after mom moved in) to talk to mom's caseworker – voicemail that she would call back the next day, left a message. I called again and spoke with the front desk and was put through – another caseworker, then nursing director, then nursing supervisor – all went to voicemail with same message. Then I was put through to the physical therapy department (as they would do the certification) and spoke with a woman there – who said that they, not the caseworker do the certifications. I was concerned as we had been told it was a 15 minute process – and we would be on a very tight schedule. Mom is now living a half an hour further away from us – and from this doctor, along with allowing for getting mom into the car we were leaving at 2:30 for her 4pm appointment – we added another half hour for certification instead of 15 minutes – just in case.

Sounds organized – right?

Quite literally as we pulled off our driveway into the street my cell phone rang. It was the caseworker telling me that I could not take mom out as no arrangements had been made in advance to take her out and who was this doctor anyway – they know nothing about him – arrangements have to made 72 hours (3 days) in advance! I explained to her that this appointment had been 2 months ago, “yesterday” (Monday) was the first business day since mom had moved there, etc. I gave her the doctor's name and where he was located for her to talk to and we continued on our trip.

We were using GPS to find the location of the nursing home. Our timing was about to right to get there – but husband got confused about the GPS directions when we got off the main road (despite my figuring out where it would be located and explaining same in advance – so we had to make 2 U-turns (went wrong way, then passed turn on way back) and he hates to make U-turns. The location is on the service road of the main road – limited access highway – on the Island. As we drove we passed a senior residence from another company – just before it the GPS told us to stay right and then turn right – the road ahead of us split to the right and to the left was the entry back onto the highway in the direction we had come from, so we stayed right – boy, oh boy was that an error! It took us another 15 minutes to get back to the expressway service road. Go figure, below the sign for the other senior residence was a sign for mom's. There at last!

When we went in the entrance and I said mom's name the woman at the desk said “Oh, yes!”. She knew why we were there and who to call. Someone showed up in a couple minutes with mom (the caseworker I found out) and two people showed up to certify us to take mom out. (This did impress me a lot.)

I was given papers to sign and papers to keep and a large envelope to give to the doctor's staff for info from them about mom's visit. The certifying us to take her in car was just watching us help her get in the car – and mostly they did so. And we were off!

The doctor's visit was annoying as always – and I will skip the details other one of the two us had to leave when the doctor came (room too small, my fanny we have been both together with her in that room before) and I left husband as he better understands what doctors are saying (from years running a medical facility he speaks “doctor”).

We then brought mom back to her new home. It was rush hour and we were traveling in the direction that most of the rush hour travels so it took awhile. When we arrived back at her nursing home we wheeled her in – very impressed with them again – my error, I left mom's “pass” out in the car and ran out and got it for them. I explained that mom had not had dinner as when I made the appointment and she was at the old location her dinner was 6:15 and I had timed it out for her to be home for same, now that her dinner is 5 pm, I will try to make future appointments to take same into account. In normal times we would have taken her out for dinner (would solve our dinner problem also), but due to Covid we did not want to do so. No problem, they would make sure she had something to eat.

We then started our trek home in rush hour.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Always find out in advance about what needs to be done when going somewhere for the first time. Per the paperwork from the certification they need to know 72 hours in advance if mom will be going out to okay it with her doctor and they have to know at least that far in advance about any medical appointments.

I made the mistake of relying on my sister and not calling when she first said that mom would be moving here to find out about taking mom out and so on.

An aside – I did finish the paperwork for the real estate tax exemption over this past weekend and we drove today to the County building and I delivered it to the County Assessor's office and received a receipt for it. This office is normally jammed out the door, especially this time of year. There was one person in there talking to an employee, when they left, I was next and when I was leaving one other person walked in. When I commented on this to the employee who helped me he said “You should have been here an hour ago – the line was huge.” I guess going places late in the day has an advantage.

COVID 19 #26 - PLAN NOW FOR THANKSGIVING APART FOR THIS YEAR

 Well, Thanksgiving is coming (in the U.S.A.) in 2 weeks.   Yes, family is important, but family staying well and alive is more important.  Please don't have (or go to) a big family gathering this year.  Have a dinner with those in your household.  

How about a long distance (or short distance if family lives nearby) extended family celebration on Zoom– perhaps even set up a monitor (yes, this would be exception to the “no TV, no computers,no phones at Thanksgiving dinner rule)  where everyone having dinner at your house can see the screen and have your extended family members do the same.  Make an agreement for what time to have dinner which works for everyone – then all can share dinner across the Internet and still be safe.  

Have Aunt Mary send a copy of her secret recipe for her pumpkin pie (will you find out that she uses the one on the can of canned pumpkin?).  Have Cousin Susie her recipe for the stuffing and so on.  Everyone can make the dishes for their family (or not as they choose – perhaps Uncle Dave adds a bit too much “fun” in his rum cake?).  If everyone has the same foods it will seem like everyone is eating together.  Or, just let everyone make the dinner they want – perhaps next year your sister-in-law's vegetable soup (a dish I always make for Thanksgiving) will be the new family favorite that no one has had before, but when she made it for the dinner she and your brother had with their children – it looked soooo good and her children asked for more – yes, more vegetables  - and then you will all asking her for the recipe.  

The holiday is something which can be celebrated across the miles -  or across the street – so that all stay safe and well.  I am sure that you all would prefer for grandpa Jack to be with you at future Thanksgiving dinners than this be his last one due to his catching Covid-19 from someone at the dinner.  

My husband and I used to have both families at our home for Thanksgiving dinner – it was “our” holiday.  10 years ago we had bed bugs – we have not have family join us for the holiday since.  I still cook the same foods for the two of us – just a bit less than I made for the families.  I set up the dining room with the “good” china and silverware.  I use smaller serving bowls than before, but we have a nice holiday.  We do this annually now – and I only suggesting your family and friends have this one Thanksgiving apart – so that hopefully you will all be alive and well for next Thanksgiving to be together again.  

I am writing this column now – 2 weeks before the holiday so that you have time to plan with your extended family to have your holiday apart, while still joining together in some way over the distance so all will survive the corona virus and are here to be there for next year.  

Me, I have to figure out what to do with the all the extra canned goods, bottle, jars, and packages which are currently residing on my dining room table – taking up the entire table plus there are 3 huge plastic boxes of foods,which might attract vermin if it was just out, stacked next to the table.   I figure I have to clear up my studio worktable and move the food from the dining room table onto it.  (This will also allow me to decorate the dining room for Christmas afterward which I never had a chance to do last year.)  Husband has said to have the dinner in the kitchen,but I know from the past we need the kitchen table for related things – such as carving the turkey.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

For the Jewish holiday of Passover one of the prayers is “Next year, may we all be in Jerusalem” - for Thanksgiving let us all stay apart and safe and say “Next next Thanksgiving may we all be at Aunt Anne's” (or wherever you normally celebrate Thanksgiving) and survive this pandemic to do so.  

A little planning is all that is needed.

Let us also remember on this Veteran's Day all of those brave people who have fought to protect their country in the various wars which threatened our country as well as, including those in other countries who share the memory of Armistice Day when World War I (the Great War) had it truce.  If not for them we would not be living in the world we have now (meaning of course the good things of our world.)  Tell a veteran (or two) that you appreciate their service.

COVID 19 #4 - MAIL, FOOD AND HOLIDAY WISHES

Well another week in the house in the house due to COVID 19.  Other than walking out our side door (through a small porch) 3 days a week to take in the mail from the box at our front door, we have not been out of the house in an evening short of 2 weeks.  Not as bad as one would think, I have been catching up work and in email contact with some friends from college as we check on each and say happy birthday/ happy anniversary as we have had several of same among us these past few weeks.  Also found that a friend with cancer has successfully completed her treatment.  A friend had COVID 19, luckily a mild case, and is recuperating.  My sister told me that a family of our (adult) cousins also has same – but are doing well.  So – knock on wood – we are doing okay.

Husband has become terrified of going to the Post Office to mail out items – work I have done and has to go to clients, paid bills, etc. - as the community where the Post Office is located has one of the higher COVID 19 counts in the county - even though I would only be only throwing it in the mail collection box in front of it.  I telephoned our local Post Office (I think I have explained that the Post Office which serves our home is considerably further away than 2 others – one of which is where we have our box) and asked and, yes, one can still leave mail in one's home mail box for the postal delivery person to pickup when they deliver your mail.  So, our bill payments are sitting in the clip on the small door through which our mail is delivered for it to be (hopefully) picked up tomorrow.  The clip is there for this purpose and we have the flag up on the box.  Unfortunately this only works with regular #10 envelope sized mail with our box.  We have two items that are in 6 inch by 9 inch envelopes which do not fit in the clip, so at some point we will have to go to at least a mail box to mail them.  They are not bills and not as urgent, so we are okay with waiting to send them out. The funny thing is that I used these two envelopes for these items as I was afraid that they would be too thick in a regular envelope to fit in the new thin deposit slits in the mail boxes.


Tonight my husband went downstairs for something. He noticed a plastic box on the shelves in the basement with food cans in it – our old emergency food supplies. He said he hoped I had not let the food go past date. I went downstairs afterward to look – I knew it all had to be past date as I had not bought new drinking water since I stopped cooking for our reenctment unit. (I had to buy bottle water for them also, so I would rotate ours into what I used for them and put the new water bought for them, in as our supply just to keep ours from getting old which I why I say this.)

I managed to get the box off the shelf and out – it was heavy and I was afraid of dropping of it, but did not. I put it on a table in the basement and opened it. Apparently it has been over 15 years since we bought emergency food supplies and stored it – a couple of years old and I would be using them – but 15 years?!. Perfectly good looking cans – but much too old to even think of eating – what a waste. If you have similar emergency food supplies be sure to check them and rotate them before they are too old to eat.

I know a lot of you are going through a lot right now.  How are YOU handling all everything to keep your home and family running?  Any suggestions or tips for the rest of us?

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -

I want to wish you a Happy Easter and/or a Happy Passover – the holidays might be very different than  usual this year – but they are still are special.  In future years these holidays will be looked back on and remembered for how you and yours managed to get through it.  For some they might not be happy memories, perhaps even tragic, for others the memories will be better – even funny.  All of the memories though will remind us of what can we can do when we need to and that we can survive. 

My best wishes for all of you and your families.

KEEP ON TOP OF CHORES AND APPOINTMENTS BY SETTING UP REMINDERS

Another week, another post.  This is actually good for me.  With the exception of, I think, two times since I have started this blog several years ago I have not missed posting on what is Wednesday night to me and Thursday (very) am to everyone else.  (12:15 am Thursday as I start to write this, for example.)

Do you have trouble doing tasks which have to be done over and over on some sort regular basis?  I did, well I still do although I am much better at it now.  I use my mobile phone to help with this as I do for many other things.  

At the start of the year (actually usually just as December is ending for the coming year) I will go through my Lotus Organizer and put in repeating tasks for the coming year.  I have quarterly repeating tasks - such as doing  payroll tax forms for clients or extra computer backups.  I have monthly tasks - monthly computer backups, setting up new spreadsheets for our craft business to keep track of inventory (even though we have had no sales since December - I update the spreadsheet monthly anyway) and changing the sponges I use for cleaning.  I have weekly tasks - laundry, changing towels - kitchen and bathroom, changing the bed, regular weekly data backup, and so on.  I also have daily tasks - for example -  check email - yes, I need a reminder for this.  I do not need a reminder to wash the dishes from dinner and later at night from pre-bed snack as I do them as we finish the meal.  I also have annual reminders - these I set up to repeat for 5 years (I am thinking of 10 years next time) - birthdays, anniversaries, when other tax forms are due (for clients & us), and so on. 

I also will add various events as I find out about them.  I know that our reenacting unit meets monthly on the a certain day of the month - I set up the meetings on my calendar (both in the Organizer and my mobile phone which keeps a separate calendar as it does not sync - the Organizer is synced with my old Palm Centro which I carry around the house as a PDA).  When the events schedule is set up for the year I add those to both calendars also.  My embroidery chapter has a “fiscal” year - the meeting year runs from September of one year through June of the next year and as soon as I know the meeting dates - again a specific day repeating each month -  they are added to both calendars. I add appointments I make as I go along.  I add trips we make reservations for to the calendar - I start the year with the one for our July 4ish trip already in the calendar as we have to book a year in advance to make sure we get the RV space we want - and we are generally not there on July 4 itself - we are not happy with the RV park and the area we visit being that busy. 

What do you do to keep track of when to do things or what your plans are?  When I was younger I was able to keep much of this in my head, but I no longer can.  (Heck, I put down a check today and 10 minutes later could not remember where I put it down - finally remembered.)  Having a reminder ring helps one stay on track.  I am about to go upstairs as I am backing up my desktop computer for the month (did the quarterly back up while we had dinner) and the reminder just went off in my mobile phone to see if it if the backup is done - it was not finished when I checked half an hour ago.  Be right back - feel free to talk among yourselves, get a snack, or make a bathroom run while I check........ No not done yet.  I reset the reminder for another half an hour.  But, the laundry will need to be shifted between washer and dryer - and another load put in the washer in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.

See how this works?  Trust me if you just try to remember to do everything - it does not work.  Don’t just use reminder on your mobile phone for personal stuff - use it for work also.  If you work at computer at work (or home) you can put the reminders on it instead - or also.  If you are low tech - and I find nothing wrong with low tech (I am the first one to scream if some company or government agency says that something has to be done by computer or with a mobile phone, not for me but for others - well sometimes for me as I prefer the privacy of not having any number of things on my cell phone for security) use a paper calender and an alarm clock to remind you - or even a timer if you have to go back to finish something.  Darn laundry reminder has gone off.  Be right back.......

Back again.  You need to decide what you need to be reminded of. Some items all you might need to do is to put them on the date(s) or day(s) of the calendar so you will see them to do them.  Others you might need to have an alarm go off to remind you to stop what you are doing and do what you are suppose to do. (My backup and laundry have sound reminders to remind me.)

Yes, sometimes life gets in the way (or you just really need as a personal matter not to do something on the day you have it scheduled) and things do not get done.  I admit to not changing the bedding yesterday as I normally do on a Tuesday (gasps are heard “she did not do something on her schedule after she said to schedule things so you remember them).  My elderly mom had a problem that started extremely early on Tuesday morning.  Monday night to us and we had to run to help her just as we had changed and gotten into bed - at 4 am.  By the time we were back home - and then only were able to do so by the grace my sister meeting us at the hospital with her husband so we could leave (and they had slept as normal people do from earlier in the evening). I had sent my husband out to the car for him to sleep but that had not worked.  It was 10 am by the time we finally were able to go to bed.  Husband, exhausted, fell asleep.  I could not, while waiting to hear from my sister what the findings were about mom. After text messages and telephone calls I was finally able to fall asleep - for about an hour.  When we got up for the day it was late in the day even for us and I just had no energy to deal with the bed and said to myself the very unladylike “F it”.   (Mom was given a prescription to try for the problem and is staying with my sister at least through the holidays, which for us will run through next week and we will figure out what to do to keep her safe and well - she is 90.)

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -

1 - Use your technology to keep you on schedule or a paper schedule and clock if you prefer to use same.

2 - Realize that things occur which will throw you off schedule - it is called life and one never knows what will happen.  Just get back on schedule as soon as you can.  (And schedules are not written in stone - if you never get to do something, such as write your blog post on Tuesdays, you can move it to another day - Wednesday, for example the day you actually post it.)

3 - I wish you a good holiday with those you love.

SCANNING TO MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND PAID BILLS

Last October - October 26, 2016 post  I posted on the usefulness of having a printer and a scanner to help one get organized and keep papers organized.  Here’s an additional thought on that subject.

I am good - really good - at keeping track of bills to pay and paid bills, after all, I am an accountant.  I have a paid bills file next to my desk - one of those large wallet things with sections in it.  When I pay a bill I post it in my Quickbooks program, mark it paid, attach any charge slips, etc and then file it in the appropriate section of the paid bills file.  I generally have a section for each credit card and type of bill.  The credit card we use most often actually has two sections - bills paid January through June and bills paid July through December as there are a lot of charge card slips. The sections for taxes have folder in them to further divide the bills.  I will not go into all of the sections right now as I am already digressing too much. 

Early in January I pull out all of the paid bills from the year before.  Other than tax related bills, the bills are put into an old manila folder box which is redated with a black marker for the year of the bills in it. These bills will sit in this box until around May when I go through my other files for last year, add the paid bills, tax returns, etc and box them up in a box in the top of my office closet.  I pul out the oldest box up there - when I do this for last year I will be pulling out the 2007 box - basically shred what is in the box, relabel the box with the new year and store it all in the box, which is returned to the top of the closet.

The tax related bills when pulled in January for the prior year I combine them all in one folder which will generally not be used until towards the end of the following year and put them where I will be putting clients’s tax information.  The remainder of the tax info folders, now empty, go back in the paid bills file. 

Okay, that is the background of my paid bills. 

We have a VERY small RV.  We have a contract from a company for road service for the RV in case it breaks down, has a flat tire, etc.  Sort of like the Automobile Association of America (of Canada, etc.), but for RVs.  (Yes, these companies often also cover one’s cars and AAA will cover some RV problems but one will not have a specialist in RVs come if one calls AAA.)

When paying bills late last Friday (after business hours anywhere in the lower 48) I noticed that I have the renewal for this RV road service policy is due April 25.   I double checked that I did not have the bill and then did what any wife would do - I asked my husband if “we” (meaning he) has an online account for the company.  He did.

He attempted to sign in and was told that since the account was expired more than 90 days ago, he no longer had an account.  He tried to sign in with their alternate method, in case he made a mistake in his sign in info.  This required the RV manufacturer’s name from a list and the RV’s VIN number.  The list of RV manufacturers was rather short and our RV was not on the list.  Husband starts to get upset. 

As usual his first reaction is that I did not do something I should have done - or did it wrong.  “Are you sure you paid the bill last year?”  I told him I did and would get the paid bill for him.  I climbed up and took down the box of last year’s paid bills.  I went through all of the bills - I could not find it.  So - what do we all do?  I went through them again.  No paid bill.

Perhaps it was with the tax related papers?  The RV is not tax related, but our car and van are partially so and I tend to keep the car related bills together.  No, not there - again I checked twice.

I looked the payment up in Quickbooks Yes!  I did pay it  - on March 31 and it cleared the bank on April 7 last year.  I found the copy of the canceled check in with the bank statement.  (This was in the drawer in the file cabinet for personal items - having the info from Quickbooks made it easy and, well, quick to find.)  Proof I paid it and it was not my fault.

But a copy of the bill?  Then I remembered.  Last year I scanned in one of each type of bill to the computer with the idea that if something happened to me, husband could bring up the scanned copy of a bill of that type and see what I did when I paid it.  (The bill is scanned in, and then the items I send - check, stub, envelope - are scanned on the last page of the file.)  So there was a scanned copy of the bill in that file.  I printed out the first page of the bill - showing all the info needed and set it aside to telephone the company on Monday.

Thinking about this over the weekend I decided two things.  First, I would create a separate folder in the paid bills, tax related sections for all car related items.  Second, it was so convenient to pull up the copy of the missing bill that I will scan in all paid bills in the future.  Understand, I will still keep the hard copy as they have the assorted credit card slips and other supporting papers attached to them and I will not scan in all these attachments, but I will scan in the bills themselves for quick and easy reference if needed.  I plan to set up a folder for “paid bills” with 12 folders in it - one for each month - and label the scan of each bill with the check number which paid it.  I hope this will make it easier in the future to quickly find bills for reference.

Oh, in case you are wondering - I telephoned this past Monday and had a terribly odd conversation with an employee of the company.  He first was confused as our plan ended April 25, 2016 - huh?  I told him that I had our canceled check for the year ending April 25, 2017,which cleared our bank on April 7, 2016.  (See how useful the payment info is.)  “Oh, yes.  There is an error, I see the payment.  I’ll update the computer.  I then asked him if this means that we have had no coverage for the past year - despite paying for it.  He, of course said no.  When I pushed him as it what would have happened if we needed service - “Service would have called us and we would have found the error and fixed it.”  What if I needed the help, say last Friday - they keep business hours in the office?  “Oh, you would have just paid for the service call and we would have reimbursed you.”  The fact that I would not have known who to call and would have needed to have money to pay them for the tow, well that did not make sense to him.  He wanted me to renew by credit card over the phone.  “Do you even still deal with my brand of RV, since it is not on your list of RV companies?”  Of course they do, just that if one gets a new policy it has to come through the RV company - which makes no sense as to why the company is not on their alternate ID for sign in list.  I asked him to mail us a bill to pay.

He seemed a little too quick and pat with the answers and husband went looking on the Internet, Yes, this has happened to a number of people.  Our RV company has it’s own road service company now - so they would not be signing us up with them.  In addition they have dropped the inexpensive basic policy we had for one which is more than three times as much cost.  So after all this we are looking for a different company - but at least I will be able to find the paid bills as we go forward as they will be scanned into the computer.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

I feel odd about this thought it is different than my usual posts for same and it is not intended to be religious or political, although it is a bit of both, but I intend it to be more of a any person to any person idea.


As the Jewish people celebrate Passover and the Christians celebrate Good Friday and Easter this week, please take to heart the idea of all of us being siblings.  Be a little nicer to people in your daily life - strangers as well as those you know. 

Say please and thank you a bit more - even in situations where you might not normally think to do so.  Hold the door open for someone - even if they capable of doing so on their own.  Help a mother who is juggling child, purse and lunch tray as she tries to move a high chair.  Smile at someone who looks a bit upset - it is an amazing feeling when one does this and the other person smiles back and then, at least, seems a little less upset - a bond between two people of only seconds.  (These are all things I have done during the past week - and try to do when I can.)

Let us - even those not of a religion celebrating these holidays - be a bit more neighborly to those we see during the day.  Not only will the other person feel better, it is amazing how long the memory of the smile from a stranger lasts - no matter which of us initiated it. 

Our world is in a state today that I, for one, find scary.  Perhaps the more of us who show small kindnesses to others, the better the world can be.



           








                           

HOLIDAYS AND TAXES - UNRELATED SUBJECTS

Hello again. 

We did not go away for my husband’s birthday due to, yes, rain again.  There is no point in going to outdoor market when a good chunk of the outdoor vendors will not be, especially if one is going to travel 3+ hours each way and pay over $20 in tolls to go there.         

I have been busy finishing up client’s tax returns and have only one left to do and I am waiting for the information to do it.  So I started on our personal and business returns.  Money goes back and forth between us and the business - something is on our credit card for the business or vice versa, so the first thing I have to do is make sure what the business owes us is the same amount on the business’s books and on our books.  Sometimes I post something on one set of books and forget to post it on the other. That took 2 days to work out - and the end of 2015 I got it to match, so the differences were all last year - finally both the business and our books agree. 

Next week is holiday time - Monday night is the start of Passover and next Friday is Good Friday, followed, of course, by Easter Sunday.  If you are having people in for the holidays - do you have your house ready?  Now is the time to start.  Try to do better than throwing everything in that extra room with door that stays closed when people are over.  - You thought I didn’t know about that?  I started doing this when I was a kid - cleaning my room meant throwing everything in the bottom of the closet - this would result in my finding the leftover Halloween candy sometime the following August - luckily I never had bugs or other little visitors as a result of that.  Try to actually toss out some items - or take them for donation.  (I took 5 suitcases today for donation - one hard side rolling bag and the rest were soft bags that I managed to fit into the rolling bag. - a little more room in a closet for other stuff.)  Plan out your menu if you doing the cooking or assign who will bring which dish if you have an arrangement where everyone brings part of the dinner.  I keep my recipes for the holidays on the computer.  They used to be in a cooking program (technically they still are, but it needs a parallel printer to print them out and that means running cables...) I printed them out and scanned them (remember I posted last October about how great and important it is to have a scanner and a printer - this is one example) into the computer.  Now I can print them out when needed.  I print the recipes I will use and throw them out as they are finished with - easy to see what still needs to be done. Even if you not are not going to be responsible for the hosting or cooking - make sure that everyone’s clothes will be ready for them to wear for the holidays. 


THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Income taxes (here in the U.S.) are due April 18, a week from this coming Tuesday.  There is still time to get them finished.  If you find that you will not have them done - whether because you are too busy to do them, can’t find info, or did not get info from someone needed to prepare them, you can file for an extension of time to FILE.  It is not an extension of time to pay - so make sure you have paid in enough for your taxes - from withholding or by filing estimated taxes - to be at least as close as possible.  If your income is the same as last year as far as you know -then make sure you have paid in at least the same in taxes as your taxes were last year - 110% of last year’s if you have a high income. 

There is a form from IRS to file to get the extension - it is automatic and you will have until October 15, 2017 to file.  Depending on your state you might also have to file a form for an automatic extension or it might just be automatic. Again, this is an extension of time to FILE the return, not to pay the taxes. 

If you do get an extension try to prepare and file your returns as soon as possible so if you do owe  additional taxes you will pay as little in possible in any penalties and interest for paying late - and if you are getting a refund, don’t you want the money as soon as possible?

If you have not filed your taxes in the past - get them filed also.  The April 18 date may be important for you too.  If a return is filed more than 3 years late you will lose any refund due you and if you owe money on the returns you are adding penalties and interest to what you owe - every month and if you have not filed a return - then IRS (and the state’s) 3 years to go after you for taxes owed does not start to run and they can come after you until you file a return (then they have 3 years) or forever. 

If you get a large refund you might want to change the amount withheld for taxes or pay less in estimates - a refund may be exciting, but IRS and your state is using your money.  If you can pay less in advance without underpaying the taxes that is money in your pocket (or even better your bank account) during the year on which you can make (the current tiny rate of) interest or you can pay down a bill and pay less interest.                                                     
If you owe money - file your returns even if you cannot pay the amount due.  Pay as much as you can and attach a letter explaining.  Depending on how much you owe, a payment plan from IRS (state) maybe easier than you think to get - but you are paying interest (and will pay penalties for underpaying your taxes) until the amount due is paid off.

Another reason for paying your taxes is that there is a scam in which someone calls you and rather threateningly tells you that they are from the IRS (state) and you owe taxes - which won’t worry you if you know you don’t owe any taxes.  In case you haven’t heard this - IRS (state) will not call you for payment of taxes without having mailed something to you first.  Don’t fall for this scam.  (Or similar ones claiming that if you do not pay immediately with a gift card your utilities will be shut off.)  One thing to remember is that IRS, states, utilities will never tell you to buy gift cards to pay off an amount owed - especially not Apple gift cards. They will not want you to wire money to them.  (There are postal laws that can be used against fraudsters, so they want they want the money otherwise sent to them - by wire, UPS, FedEx, etc.- to avoid the postal laws.) They will want payments by check.  (They may also take credit cards and charge you a fee for using same.)  Also if anyone ever calls claiming to be from the government or a utility and threatens you for payment.  If you are unsure, ask if you can call them back - a refusal to allow you to do so is another indication that they are not legitimate.  Call the government agency or the utility directly and ask them if this was a legitimate call.  If you have a tax preparer - you should be able to call them for help.  But again - if one is not delinquent, then one knows that one does not owe the money. Personally I do not talk to anyone who calls.  We have our answering machine on all the time and we screen our calls (originally as we did not want to have to tell all the people who thought we were a pizza place, a doctor, or an eyeglass store that they were wrong, but now it is so we don’t talk to any of these con men).  IRS has a link on the first page of their site to information about current scams.

I do have to give you a bit of disclaimer.  I am not a CPA, just a garden variety of accountant and tax preparer.  The information I have given (other than the fraud warnings) may or may not apply to you.  It is always a good idea to use a legitimate tax preparer (IRS has a directory of tax preparers who meet certain education standards and have a good history of no problems with returns on their website). You can also find free help depending on your return and circumstances through various programs - check at your local library for these programs.   IRS’s website is irs.gov   

And don’t forget - it is never too early to start preparing for next year’s returns.