idle thoughts from spending too much time looking at IRS tax forms

[desh]

I love that the PDFs printed on the IRS's website all have the "Printed on recycled paper" logo at the bottom.

A significant chunk of a page on every tax form instructions has a "Paperwork Reduction Act Notice", detailing some information about the act, how long it will take to fill out the associated form, and what to do if you have questions or comments along those lines. Hey, I have a novel idea on how to create a reduction in the amount of paper needed for this paperwork...

And for about an hour just now, I was 90% sure I found a bug, repeated several times, in the instructions for a federal tax form. (It turns out not to be a bug, but I'd call it bad documentation any time you're asked to divide by a percentage without the rules explicitly explaining why. People in general are really really bad at dividing by numbers between 0 and 1.)

Comments

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

I love how, on one of the forms I received in the mail, I can fill in that the reason I'm not paying taxes this year is that I'm deceased. That's pretty hilarious.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

NAME: ________

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

Huh?

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Involved and rambling joke. Hotblack Desiato is a chain of London estate agents. Douglas Adams (as noted on their "About Us" page) stole the name for a character in the Hitchhiker's Guide who was a rock star. The character spent much of his life dead for tax reasons, being carried to parties and communicating telepathically.

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

LOL, wow, I'm doing too much at once. I just looked at the link, saw "Hot Black..." and stopped reading at once, wondering why somebody was sending me something so blatantly NSFW, before getting back to filling out paperwork.

Win.