I'm Free!
2002-04-30, 2:45 p.m.

Ahhhhhhh!!!

Tax is done and gone forever.

Amazingly enough, I think I actually did well on the test. I think that I knew most of the answers and knew where to look to find the answers to what I did not know.

Or, it could be one of those things where you think you know but then you get the grade back and it is obvious that you had no idea what you were talking about.

That's why I don't check my grades. In my world, I got straight A's. And that makes me happy.

On an upsetting note, the professor did not ask about front-loaded alimony payments. I spent a great amount of time learning how to calculate the tax treatment of these payments. And he didn't even have the decency to ask a question about it...luckily he didn't ask about depreciation either.

Just to share my new-found knowledge with the world (or the three people who read this):

Front-loaded alimony payments. The excess alimony paid in years one and two is recaptured by requiring payor spouse to include it in income in year three.

To calculate you must:

1) determine the excess payments for the second year by taking the payments made in the second year and subtracting the sum of the alimony payments in the third year plus $15,000.

2) Then determine the excess payments for the first year which is the payments made in the first year minus the sum of $15,000 plus the average alimony payment of years two and three (year two payment is the payment minus the excess as determined in one).

Do you know how long it took me to get the numbers matched up in the Examples and Explanations Book. That's a part of my life I will never get back.

Now, I need a nap...I think I'm crashing from my sugar/caffeine high.