Finances & Money • Taxes

Day 79 of Idiocy: Still fighting for my Maryland tax refund!

About 2 weeks ago, I told you how I was an idiot and filed our state and federal taxes with the wrong social security number for Stacie. As I write this, I’m on the phone with the IRS to find out whether they processed my return. All I had to do back on April 15th was fax in a signature page and a W-2 for Stacie, so perhaps the return has been filed.

UPDATE! The federal return has been processed and accepted! Now back to your regularly scheduled article…

But the Maryland return is the difficult one (isn’t it always the state that causes problems, not the feds?). Apparently, Maryland has a new law this year that requires a letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) to prove Stacie is who I say she is. A copy of her SS card isn’t enough. And we can’t get this through the mail; Stacie has to go to the SSA in person.

So because of my lack of attention to detail, Stacie has to take a day off, wait in line at the SSA (luckily only a mile or so from our house) and try to get this letter as proof of her status in the U.S. Was this “new law” enacted as a protection against identity theft? Illegal immigrants? Or just one more way to make Maryland residents hate their lawmakers? Well, if I wasn’t stupid, I would never have had to worry about the law in the first place, so it’s a moot point.

Mind you, we’re waiting for about $1400, which is no small amount of cash. This will be used to fund a nice little vacation we’re planning at the end of the year (more to come on this later when it’s booked). One day, we’ll have that money. It might not be before June, but we’ll have it!

_{Photo courtesy of Icanhascheezburger.com}