sierra trading post cargos: [link]

I called LA City's Finance helpline, and they said that yes, this appeared to be an error, and it sometimes happens. They said to attach a copy of my business license and supporting documentation that I paid my taxes and am in good standing. So I did that, checked the box for an immediate hearing.

I pulled copies of my tax returns for the last three years, made copies of all documents related to my license, including the canceled check, and mailed the form back with the documentation attached, circling and notating each error on the form they sent.

GO YOU! Bury them in paperwork!

Hoping for quick resolution.

Me too!

Oooh. Hm, I see what you are saying. But that doesn't seem to work out since the number that shows up on my W-2 is the gain, not the income of the options. And none of the programs asks me about the income of the options. That is, there's nothing different about the way any of them asks me, so I don't see what HRBlock is doing that's making the tax so much lower. Is the income of the options really income if I technically paid for them myself by selling the stock?

I can only guess, so you shouldn't use my guess as a basis for filing your return. But my guess is that the cost of the options is included in your wages/salaries/tips income box. You should be taxed on the cost basis at some point, but not twice -- i.e., not at grant AND sale, but one or the other.

I should explain, code 'V' in Box 12 is income from exercise of nonstatutory stock options and is included in your reported W-2 income. If it isn't reported in box 12 code 'V', then your stock option income probably isn't included in your W-2 income and you may be off to Schedule D, but I don't know for certain.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I know about that box 12 from past experience.

Completely unrelated, my therapist had this awesome nugget: You know, part of the problem is that you're actually too smart for your job.

No, I totally get this. You start overthinking everything just to keep some brain activity going and then everything seems more complicated than it needs to be.

Paging Matt the Bruins fan: David Boreanaz will be blogging about the NHL playooffs. (but not the Bruins, he'll be following the Flyers.)

[link]

Allyson, if you are feeling overwhelmed it might help to write every single thing that comes into your head that you think needs doing (GTD technique). The idea is that once you put is down it will stop swirling around in your head and causing anxiety.

David Boreanaz will be blogging about the NHL playooffs.

gosh. Flyers are in Philly. So are we. He could stay with us. We haz wifi.

...

if toddler plague and non-star accommodations were not an issue. I do make a mean batch of mussels.

but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

Box 14 is just informational so I think you still need to file a Schedule D and just ignore Box 14 on your W-2. Now do you have an entry in box 12 of your W-2 for code 'V'?

No, I don't think so. And I do suspect you're right about Box 14 because I took it out, and it didn't change my tax owed.

What's confusing me is the fact that I owed anything at all before I did the Schedule D. I'm fairly certain I overwithhold, and I didn't change my withholding from the year before, when I got a refund. And my salary was not significantly higher in 2007 than it was in 2006.

You should be taxed on the cost basis at some point, but not twice -- i.e., not at grant AND sale, but one or the other.

I think I'm only taxed at sale. I didn't do anything special last year, when I held stock options but hadn't cashed them out.

Maybe you can contact your HR or payroll person/people and ask if your stock option income was of the non qualifying dispensation type and was therefore included in your W-2 income.

When I have that type of income I actually write a note on my schedule D that the transactions on that 1099 were cashless stock option exercises and they are reported (in my case) in box 12 code 'V'.

I had to deal with the IRS on this issue a few years ago.