The Whine thread.

[Alelou]

If they're taxing the grant as income, that means your expenses associated with your studies are work-related ... and so probably deductible. Keep your receipts. I would think the office that dispursed your grant might have some tax advice. Or google 'tax deductions for overseas academic research' or something like that. Or search the IRS site -- there are tons of little mostly-impenetrable PDFs there. There are usually some tax advantages to working overseas.

[TPoptarts]

WHUT!! How do they know what you brought with you and what you bought there anyway. Tell them it's all your stuff from the US. I mean like you don't have to tell them you have like clothes and shoes in your luggage before you fly to Australia right, and what do they keep like prints of the x-ray scans of everyone's luggage to compare when they come back?? Whatever and if they do then tell them your mother sent you that stuff from the US during your stay there. So everything's American and they can't tax you.

[Aquarius]

Whine: people who play the victim to get attention.

Won't go into it. Will get irritated all over again. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Thank you.

[JadziaKathryn]

WHUT!! How do they know what you brought with you and what you bought there anyway. Tell them it's all your stuff from the US. I mean like you don't have to tell them you have like clothes and shoes in your luggage before you fly to Australia right, and what do they keep like prints of the x-ray scans of everyone's luggage to compare when they come back?? Whatever and if they do then tell them your mother sent you that stuff from the US during your stay there. So everything's American and they can't tax you.

I wouldn't feel good about that dishonest approach, but for a lot of stuff it wouldn't work anyway. Really, coming back from 9 months in Australia, who's going to believe the platypus necklace or the business suit that says "Jacqui E of Australia" on the tag is from America?

If they're taxing the grant as income, that means your expenses associated with your studies are work-related ... and so probably deductible. Keep your receipts. I would think the office that dispursed your grant might have some tax advice. Or google 'tax deductions for overseas academic research' or something like that. Or search the IRS site -- there are tons of little mostly-impenetrable PDFs there. There are usually some tax advantages to working overseas.

Nope. Research expenses don't count, only tuition and books count. Oh, well. It could be worse, I guess.

[TPoptarts]

Dishonest?? What are YOU making THEM pay twice for stuff that ain't none of your business that isn't even supposed to be considered like some kinda "income" or whatever since it's obviously exchanged for its worth in money, well actually more than its worth cuz that's how people make profit, anyway it doesn't make sense they're ripping you off. I hate when people rip other people off. Especially governments.

Well anyway. If it were me I'd totally lie my ass off. Um actually if it were me I'd have nothing to worry about because I hardly ever shop, and even when I do it's for necessities. But yeah.

Did you really buy a lot, if the taxes on that stuff's really gonna be that high maybe it would be cheaper to like mail it to the US (the stuff you can't pass as American anyway). In separate boxes. Like yeah that would cost you too but at least you're paying for an actual service you're getting rather than paying for the sake of paying because you already paid for it already and someone who had nothing to do with it wants a share of the loot. Which doesn't make sense. At all.

[Alelou]

I mailed stuff back home from England twenty years ago, not to avoid taxes (I'd bought most of it at jumble sales), but because I couldn't carry it all on my back and I was spending the last couple of weeks hitch-hiking around the country.

Some prat in the lovely Royal Mail opened up the box and stole a good bit of it.

But as I said, it was mostly stuff from jumble sales and OxFam shops. I hope whoever did it was disappointed!!! I don't even remember what went missing anymore, which is a clue I probably shouldn't have bothered to hang onto it in the first place.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Gah, I hate customs and tariffs. That's one of the good things about Sweden being a EU member state. If I buy stuff from another EU country (I mostly do it from the UK) I don't have to bother with that crap. But I have to look out if it's things from, say, the Channel Islands. Not to mention that some retailers ship from the US or Hong Kong. That could get pretty expensive even if the items in themselves are cheap.

Yay for global free trade! If we ever get that far.

[Alelou]

I think it's going to be a long winter for my garden if the deer are already staring back at me as I stand in the doorway and NOT bounding away.

Maybe they know that rule about hunting within so many feet of a house...

[Alelou]

Okay, more whining. I like to mow up my leaves and compost them. It's free fertilizer, or at least mulch. I consider it my most reliable crop. But last week my mower died mid-job. Bad choke cable.

Took it in for repair. Begged for quick turnaround. Was told to call today.

Called today. The cable is on back order. Who knows when it will come.

My yard is full of oak leaves, most of which have just come down. Snow will start flying soon. (Actually it already has.)

I even asked the guy if he knew where I could RENT a mower. Nope. I hate to borrow anyone's because frankly mowing up oak leaves is not kind to mowers.

Grrrrrr. I think I have to go buy a mower. But we're past mower season here. Grrrrr.

[blacknblue]

Hire a local kid to rake and bag them. Either pile them into a mulching bin or store the sacks in a pile somewhere until spring. then you can shred the half rotted stuff and spread it wherever you want it.

[Alelou]

Being currently unemployed I'm the local kid (well, I rope my own kid into being a local kid with me). We live in the forest here, practically. It would take a swimming pool to hold all the bags. But, yeah, that's what it might well come down to. It's just annoying. I have enough to do in the garden come spring without going back and re-doing the stuff I should have gotten done in the fall, especially since I have more time on my hands now and may not have it in the spring. Plus those leaves begin to rot very nicely when they're shredded up in piles over fall/winter/spring. I can actually USE them in the garden.

Ha. To think I was actually thinking of how I could get my hands on MORE leaves... I'm glad I resisted the impulse to stop and pick up other people's leaf bags!!!

I'm just whining. Let me whine. Okay, I'll stop now.

[Asso]

Whining is liberating. As crying. I think.

[Aquarius]

Okay, more whining. I like to mow up my leaves and compost them. It's free fertilizer, or at least mulch. I consider it my most reliable crop. But last week my mower died mid-job. Bad choke cable.

Took it in for repair. Begged for quick turnaround. Was told to call today.

Called today. The cable is on back order. Who knows when it will come.

My yard is full of oak leaves, most of which have just come down. Snow will start flying soon. (Actually it already has.)

I even asked the guy if he knew where I could RENT a mower. Nope. I hate to borrow anyone's because frankly mowing up oak leaves is not kind to mowers.

Grrrrrr. I think I have to go buy a mower. But we're past mower season here. Grrrrr.

I feel your pain. We do the same thing with our leaves, and we have a HUGE oak that usually keeps dropping them through Christmas! I would absolutely FREAK if the lawn mower gave out.

Do you have a friend or neighbor you can borrow one from? I'm sure if you top off the gas tank they won't mind.

[Alelou]

It's a little awkward. The closest neighbor is a turf manager at a golf course and his lawn is immaculate. I think he would be horrified at the thought that his lawn mower might be used to mow up leaves. His wife and I do a lot of sharing as we garden but I just think that would be pushing it.

Then there's the other next-door neighbor we never speak to. We were here two years before we met even met them. Other neighbors and the school people kind of vaguely warned us off them too, and there are a lot of trees between us, so I just haven't pursued that.

The other neighbors who are good friends use a lawn service. There aren't really that many neighbors on our street -- there's a big town park and the school bus terminal across the street, the high school is down the block, there's no sidewalk, and the houses are pretty far apart. I sometimes miss the old NJ neighborhood with sidewalks and everybody in everybody else's business.

Hmm. But I do belong to a local gardening group online. Maybe I could just throw out a borrowing request and see what happens.

[Aquarius]

That sounds like a good idea. Then all you'd need is a truck to take it back and forth and you're all set.