Overpaying Income Tax to get i-bonds: how I screwed up IRS Free Fillable Forms;  plus treesheets
Channel: cashTangoTangoCash
Date: 21/02/2022

I screwed up in trying to overpay income taxes to get i-bonds.  I
tried to use IRS Free Fillable Forms for the first time, and messed it
up.  Are you thinking of doing the same thing?  Take a look at
relevant pieces of this meandering, single-take, first-take video (TOC
below), and maybe save yourself from blowing it like I did.  Know what
you are getting into.

Also, I recently tried out treesheets
(https://strlen.com/treesheets/).  I am no expert on it, but I used it
to create this presentation.  You can watch a bit of the presentation
and see me trying to zoom in and out on my treesheets file, while also
trying to talk in a coherent manner.

I'm sorry this came out so long.  Use the Table of Contents below to
find something that interests you.  Play the video at higher speed
using an appropriate browser extension.  Too much of this is raw nerd
ranting.  I put a ton of time in attempting to clean up my first
youtube video in 2019, and I don't think it mattered.  It's just
against my basic nature to be a crisp, concise, fluid, verbal
communicator.  It's trying to make water flow uphill.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:00  intro                                                                                                                                              
0:01  a few remarks on treesheets, and using it as a presentation tool.  if you came for the treesheets, you can stop after this                         
02:40  start talking about overpaying taxes to get i-bonds                                                                                                
02:54  what is it?  how do you do it?  IRS Direct Pay.  IRS Form 8888.                                                                                    
08:00  outline of the talk.  sorry, I know this should have been first.                                                                                   
09:22  why do it?                                                                                                                                         
12:20  how did I screw it up?  short and big picture explanation                                                                                          
14:10  what happens if you screw up?  spoiler: you don't get the i-bonds                                                                                  
14:48  long, detailed explanation of how I screwed up IRS Free Fillable Forms                                                                             
16:17  my attitude and approach was, uh, sub-optimal                                                                                                      
20:30  choosing how to prepare a return and e-file it.  do you want FreeFile?  TurboTax Deluxe?  why Free Fillable Forms?                                 
27:36  the dirty details of struggling and failing with IRS Free Fillable Forms: intro                                                                    
29:09  I bring up the pdf of Free Fillable Forms User Manual and do some light ranting                                                                    
32:43  I was lazy setting up Virtualbox Windows VM                                                                                                        
35:00  doing the taxes beforehand using Open Tax Solver and paper form 8888                                                                               
36:29  the final fumble with Free Fillable Forms - my return ended up missing Form 8888.  lengthy details how this happened.  boils down to RTFM, or weep 
38:37  waving hands at screenshots of Free Fillable Forms from its manual:  explaining how it works and how I should have read the manual                 
48:53  a lame wrap-up: I was tired after the ranting.  simple message is to know what you are getting with this project                         |


REFERENCES

Movie "Used Cars" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Used_Cars
treesheets https://strlen.com/treesheets/
open tax solver http://opentaxsolver.sourceforge.net/
IRS Free Fillable Forms https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms
The Finance Buff Blog https://thefinancebuff.com/, in particular his
series on i-bonds https://thefinancebuff.com/how-to-buy-i-bonds.html
IRS Form 8888 https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8888
Virtualbox https://www.virtualbox.org/
IRS Direct Pay https://www.irs.gov/payments/direct-pay