i love (lifetime) learning

today i did my taxes. normally i do them during spring break, but i have been busy. courtesy of the livetime learning credit, i don't owe any taxes at all. kinda sounds backwards, being happy about paying tens of thousands of dollars to save less than two thousand in taxes, but i'm satisfied nonetheless . and, because intel payed for the taxes for relocation due to a change in policy, i have quite a bit more than expected in terms of overpaid taxes. i think a trip to the other side of the world is in order.

as usual, federal taxes were rather dense, but straightforward. i like the 1040. on the other hand, california's tax forms were a huge pain. what form do i fill out? okay, 540NR. but wait, half way through filling out that form, i find out that i have to fill out the CA schedule 540NR first. and filling out this form includes a massive matrix that i can fill out only if i know all the differences between how california and the feds do taxes. great. no wonder why all the UC's are so good. you need a graduate degree just to figure out how to file their taxes.