February, 8, 2004 archives

i spent a few hours this morning doing my taxes based on the information i already have (w-2, preliminary 1099).

i’m so going to get audited. the sheer number of deductions i have (and resulting refunds) must be enough to merit a flashing light on some irs auditor’s desk.

i may still end up using a professional for the final preparation. they may be clever enough to find more deductions, or talk me down from any deductions i shouldn’t be trying to take.

speaking of deductions, i completely missed doing my charitable contribution for last month. so here’s two at one time:

• library foundation of los angeles (a membership renewal, too)
• the air force aid society (the third of four relief united states military relief societies to get a donation from me; army emergency relief is still to come. it will be may, with the current rotation.)

charles schwab charges a $29.95 for all order types up to 1000 shares, or 3¢ per share for orders over 1000 shares.

td waterhouse charges $17.95 for market orders up to 2500 shares, or 1¢ per share for orders over 2500 shares. there is an extra $3 surchage for limit, stop, and stop-limit orders. (if you have $250,000 in assets, the base commission is $12. it goes down even further for frequent trading.)

(there are other brokerages that charge lower commissions, but don’t offer some of the other services i want. obviously your choice of brokerage may depend on more than the commissions charged on stock transactions. it was just one factor for me. but if you sign up with td waterhouse, let me know so i can get the referral and we both get three free trades. you can also get a month of free trades via an offer advertised on finance.yahoo.com.)