PSA for the yanks among us: An important new tax rule · 11:37pm Apr 16th, 2018
I got an early start on my taxes this year--finished them almost a day ahead of time!
The IRS made an important new rule last year, which is buried deep underneath the instructions for line 78 of form 1040. I'll quote it here, so none of you are caught unaware by it:
No checks of $100 million or more accepted. The IRS can’t accept a single check (including a cashier’s check) for amounts of $100,000,000 ($100 million) or more. If you are sending $100 million or more by check, you’ll need to spread the payment over 2 or more checks with each check made out for an amount less than $100 million. This limit doesn’t apply to other methods of payment (such as electronic payments). Please consider a method of payment other than check if the amount of the payment is over $100 million.
So, make sure you have enough checks ahead of time to cover your payment. If you miss getting your letter picked up by your post-person because you're off at the bank getting more checks, that'll be at least a $5 million failure-to-file penalty.
This has been a public service announcement. 
Lots of people have advised me to use tax preparation software to do my taxes, because it's easy--or at least to hire a professional tax preparer.
I advise you not to use tax preparation software to do your taxes, because you won't learn much about the tax codes doing that, and you may save a lot of money some day by knowing more about the tax codes. A tax preparer, maybe, though in my limited experience the kind of tax preparer that ordinary people can afford is not very good, and will at best help you not to break the law, or provide a legal scapegoat if you accidentally do.
I just discovered that I could have potentially saved a lot of money (under the theory that I'll make money again someday) by transferring money between mutual funds to move capital gains into 2017, which I never would have thought of if I didn't have to figure out how they tax capital gains. Also, that I should have a health spending account, which I didn't know you could have if you were unemployed. Probably neither TurboTax nor the guy at H&R Block will tell you these things.
Oh, so it's somehow my fault that those Washington bean counters don't understand scientific notation? Pshaw, piffle, and feh.
Back in the day when Sprint still sent out paper bills, there were 10 boxes total, so I guess if your Sprint bill was over $100,000,000, you'd also have to send in two checks.
That means two stamps, too. Probably some sweetheart deal with the post office. . . .
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Well, I'm glad to find this out now, before it becomes a problem...
Whew, thank god for Bad Horse. This notice almost came too late! *wipes sweat with million-dollar bill*
What nonsense. Everyone knows that people who make over $100 million a year don't pay taxes in this country.
On a related note, the Massachusetts form 1-NR/PY for state tax doesn't have enough boxes for you to enter an income of or exceeding $100 million dollars, which means that if your income is that high, you can't fill out the standard forms by hand.
I swear it's a conspiracy to make people buy specialized software or higher tax people to help them.
4841709
If you need to use scientific notation to express your income, you're likely not paying taxes...
4841710
An Admiral Biscuit post where the image is not cited... imposter!
4841754
I think you meant 'hire', but the idea of HIgher Tax People tickles me. These are clearly ascended beings beyond taxes who help us poor mortals with them.
4841762
The technical term is "CEO."
4841761
I usually don't in comments. Maybe I should start.
4841767
That sounds like a deflection that a changeling would make!
4841768
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Source
My initial, lazy reading of the post title spawned amusing visions of the Yakistani revenue service
I have never actually written a check in my life. If I ever have to pay the IRS more than $100 million a year, it's not even worth it to make 200M+ that year. This is the part of the tax code that disincentives job creators like me.
So if you pay that $100m in pennies, at 2.5 grams per, that's 250,000,000 grams, or 250 tons (metric). 36 metric tons per semi-truck gives you about 7 semis in your convoy.
Actually, it's not that bad. Rich people have to pay quarterly *estimated* taxes, so they'd have to pay more than $400m a year, which at the 39% rate is 1 billion in income, or a semi-truck full of pennies every two weeks. (if I did the math right)
So IRS, let me get this straight. Someone is sending you a check for more than one hundred million dollars and you're going to refuse to take it!? No wonder the U.S. has a budget deficit.
4841820 I know--why not, "Checks over $100,000,000 will incur a 2% processing fee"?
4841855
Right? I mean lets face it, anyone who a) actually pays $100 million in taxes and b) pays by check is probably some old fiscal illiterate. Why not soak them?
So that's why they kept sending my checks back. I just assumed they didn't want my money. So I stopped paying them.