Oh Hell No!!!

It's very late ... I know ... but I cannot resist doing this very quick blog entry as I'm so.............. depressed after I drafted my US tax return (yes, I know too ... trying to do this at the very last minute was not a good idea). Under the wonderful new tax law, this year I have to pay almost DOUBLE ... yes, no kidding, almost DOUBLE of what I paid last year. And NO!!! I didn't really earn more (or it's neglectable).

Why? Well, used to be you can deduct the foreign income exclusion amount from your total adjusted income ... and then just apply the tax based on the tax table. This year, they give you a wonderfully complicated worksheet to calculate out how much you have to pay as if you do NOT get the exclusion ... and then somehow by some wonderful method to take out the portion that's excluded. In simple English, it means a much higher tax rate on the non-excluded amount.

There is some small hope ... the wonderful tax application suggested to immediately open a Traditional IRA account of $4000 (by Apr 17) ... and by doing that, can possibly save about $1100 of tax money. Of course, that means I would not see that $4000 for another 30 years (or at least 20 years) ... earning a super interest rate of less than 3% ... and paying a $30 fee each year if it's below $10,000 (needless to say, I am sure I have to add another $4000 or so next year to this IRA thing).

aiya ... so depressed ...