Tax Day

April 15th, also known as Tax Day, is coming up soon. If you haven’t filed your 2014 Federal and State Income Tax forms by Wednesday, you will need to file an Extension until October.

I procrastinated filing my taxes until Saturday afternoon. At that point I figured I better file them or file an extension. I use a tax program from H & R Block, which is pretty easy to follow. I started entering my Federal tax around 3 pm and e-filed both Federal and State at close to 2 am Sunday morning.

I wasn’t sure if I would have to pay more taxes because I recharacterized some stocks in my regular IRA to my Roth IRA. I also withdrew my first Minimum Required Distribution (MRD) from my regular IRA. The MDR is required the year you turn 72, which for me was last year.

The MDR is required each year from now on until my IRA account is empty or I turn 115. Actually the MDR continues at a lower rate for all those seniors over 115.

The MDR is calculated by dividing the balance in your IRA account on December 31st of the year by a number in the Uniform Life Table for my age. The divisor for 72 is 24.7, which resulted in a MDR of about $1680.

I transferred some shares of ATT from my regular IRA to my TD Ameritrade personal account. This came out a little over the calculated MDR. I preferred transferring stock instead of selling it and transferring the cash. ATT has a good dividend and is doing well, so I didn’t want to sell it now.

I was surprised that both my Federal and State came out with modest refunds. I have a lot of charity deductions, mostly $25 to $50, but for many different charities. Even with itemizing all of them, the standard deduction for my Federal tax was higher, but my calculated deduction was higher for the State.

Gone with the Wind (Yes, the movie)

It was a relief to check my 2014 taxes off my To-Do list. Even though it was late I flipped on the TV and switched through the channels. KQED was just starting “Gone with the Wind.” I had seen it before many years ago. It was made three years before I was born, but it was reissued several times in Theaters. It is a film that should be seen on a big screen, but even on a small TV it is a visual masterpiece.

The horrors of the Civil War, for soldiers and civilians, are gruesome and realistic. Considering that the events portrayed in the film happened only 75 to 80 years before its release in 1939, the pain of that conflict was still fresh in many parts of the country.

The production is gorgeous and the acting still holds up. Hattie McDaniel’s portrayal of the loyal but feisty “Mammy,” for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, was exceptional. Her relationship as a surrogate mother to Scarlett O’Hara is believable in the context of the story, but the romanticizing of the old Plantation South is no longer easy to accept.

The film runs for 4 hours, and hardly lets up for a minute. Originally there was a 15 minute intermission after the first two hours for theater patrons to use the restrooms and replenish their popcorn. Theaters rarely made money on ticket sales. Most of it came from selling refreshments.

I didn’t get to bed until 6 am, but it was worth the long night to get my taxes done and refresh myself on that great old film.

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