Fighting about taxes. PFFFfff!

In 2007 I've forgotten to report a post, due to that the same post in 2008 was denied. I did my taxes before april first 2009. So no wonder it took them to november 2011 to respond on it, almost three years later!

I'm now trying to get my money back by fixing the 2007 post. So I send a letter explaining the situation and asking for a revision of the taxes of that year. I send that in november. After 6 weeks (the maximum allowed time after which a response can be given from the tax administration) I got a 'we got your letter we'll look at it'. Another 6 weeks later I got a 'we gave ourselves an extension of 6 weeks'-letter. Another 6 weeks later I got a letter asking for other information. (Which was asking only for information I included in the first letter). And of course gives them another 6 weeks.

Now taxes here are due before the first of April. So I was hoping to have this sorted out before then so I can include the amount in my taxes for this year. But as we've now been going back and forth for 4 months already I've requested a delay on my taxes. And wow, that was insanely easy! I called the number, selected the right option from the menu, and entered my passport number. Tada, extended until september. I'm still hoping to get this out before then, but at least this gives me some time to figure this out.

The mental crisis is working itself out as well, as I'm too serious a case apparently to be helped by the regular psychologists I got into the 'other' program which is paid for by the insurance company, without waiting lists. So in the end this'll cost me about 300 euros per year. Which is ok. And as they say an healthy mind in a healthy body, so I've signed up for a 5k race in a few month to get myself back outside and running (7.50E).

Ok, so nothing is ever easy when it comes to taxes. I've send in loads of extra data only to get a letter saying I didn't send anything in. I send in loads of extra data again only to get a letter saying that since I didn't send anything in they denied my request. I called asking about it, and suddenly they could see both my letters in the system (sigh!). I got another letter saying since I was denied this was my total for 2007/2008. I called again and was told to ignore it. I got 2 more letters which I could ignore as well, and 3 days letter another 2 letters. And yes, finally I got my money back, so that's 4.5k less in my loan

Of course I already asked for an extension, so I got a letter about that as well saying that as I didn't have to do taxes this year (?) I didn't get the extension. Then my partner did his taxes and since we live together we´re financial partners as well, so I got a letter (yesterday) saying I had to do my taxes before tomorrow... I called to get my extension again but was disallowed since I already got an extension that was denied. *SIGH*

As I've been on sick leave for the whole month I've had basically zero transportation costs. I've opted to buy a bike to go to the therapists as they're in this town, but that cost less than travelling back and forth for a month so moneywise I'm doing good.

Jan: E450 +162 other loan
Feb: E 1000 +162 other loan
Mar: E 1000 + 4500 tax refund + 162 other loan

Paid of this quarter close to 7500 euros or $10.000 *WOW*

That leaves 12000 euros on loan 1, and about 19k on loan 2.

But I've also started my savings account/Emergency fund/reservations and have a nice back up now. I've actually been able to pay for my upcoming holiday to Madrid from running accounts rather than have to dip into savings. Flight and hotel are paid for already.

And possibly in 2 weeks time I'll go to a spa for a few days with the love of my life again without having to go into savings and while still paying off more than the minimum. Sure I could repay slightly faster if I didn't, but quality of life is important as well. Basically even though I still have 31k ($42k) debt I can clearly see the way out without having to live on nothing.

Wow

Taxes still baffle me. I got a new letter saying I'm getting another 423 euros back from taxes of 2008. I've got no clue why, but I'm not complaining. Thank you!

So, another month, another payday.

That's an automatic 450+162= 612 towards the various debts

Expenses for April
So April was an expensive month. Partially things I've budgeted for, partially unexpected costs. As I'm still mentally in a not so good place there's a lot of 'fun money' in there, also as I'm still not allowed to go back to work (3 months and counting) theres a lot more free time to fill in a week.

Few days @spa with boyfriend: 253
Long weekend in Madrid: 450 (including two theatre visits in a language I don't speak)
Car repair: 620 (yearly check, new tires, other maintenance)

Now the cool thing is that these are all things that either come from my monthly fun money budget, or I have saved for. So everything within budget. I'll make an extra debt payment later this week as well, just because I can And once the extra (?) tax refund for 2008 is in that's also going into my debt. Meaning that by the end of next month I should have:

Government student loan: +/- 20k
Boyfriend student loan: <10k

Okey, so I actually don't know how much my government loan is. I just know it's a lower priority, so I pay the minimum and pay the minimum amount of attention to it as well. It's there, I'll need to pay it at some point, but first the other one.

So, another month, another payday.

That's an automatic 450+162= 612 towards the various debts

The good, the bad and the ugly for may
Lets start with the ugly. Unfortunately mental health issues increased at the end of April/beginning of May. So, from feeling almost ready to get back to work I went to absolute distress in a week and a half. So much so that I was submitted to a clinic of the mental health services on the 3th of May. I came back home on the 31st of May, so that's the whole month right there.

The bad
Not feeling good mentally also had a physical aspect. I've gained about 10kg in the last few months and now for the first time I'm at a point where I care about this. So, that means being very careful with what I eat. And healthy food is expensive. Especially as my medication makes me very very hungry I eat a lot of low calorie, high volume stuff during the day.

The good
The insurance covers almost all of the costs for the period and of my medication. It even includes the food I eat, the drinks I drank and the 'art' I've created there. I do have to pay the first 200 euro or so euro's myself but other than that nothing.
Also It's really hard to spend money if you're not allowed to go outside. So financially this is a good month (I did splurge massively on flowers for the nurses and don't regret it one bit.).

So I've made an extra payment toward my student loan of E1000, which makes my debt on loan 1 .... finally under the 10.000 ! Which means I've paid of 10,573 in the last 5 months! Wow!

Time moves on, and I've slowly been paying down my debts and building savings.
Next month is holiday time, which is all paid for already. So for now I've stopped the automatic savings and instead increased the payments on loan 1 to 1000E per month. Keeping this up would mean I'm done with loan 1 by May next year.

Mentally I'm getting slightly better, I'm hoping to start doing a few hours work again by October. It's just taking soo much time.

The up side is that transportation costs are very low. I've put in gas only 4 times so far this year. So that really helps with paying of my debts.

I had to pay some surprising taxation (from 2006?! couldn't that be done sooner?) and I had to pay a new transaction to shut exchange my debts. All in all, I'd already assigned my cash to the right locations before the end of the 30 days was there.

And it's November, time flies! I wasn't allowed to start work yet in October, but this Thursday will be my first 2 hours back at the job since February. I'm just so happy to live in a country where there's job security when you get sick. Of course it's limited as well, but as long as I'm back to work within 2 years I get to keep my job (unless it's a very small company, different rules apply, but with the 220.000 employees my employer has it's just a regular business risk that's calculated into the normal cost of running the business). So, slowly getting there!

Moneywise as well. So far this year I've paid off 13.650 euros ($17500). At the beginning of the year my boyfriend took over my first student loan with the highest interest, for a total of 20.000 Euro. We carefully drafted a contract and both win from this situation. My interest payment is lower, his interest income is higher.

When we started this we agreed on a payment of 400 per month, but by carefully looking at the my expenses I've been able to increase this a lot. Strangely enough this'll go back down once I'm back at work. Transportation and representation costs will be higher than they currently are. But I still expect to be able to finish paying of my first loan by March next year.

My second loan (government loan) will follow after that. I guess I'd better start then by finding out how much it is... Since it's second in my (small) debt snowball I've given it basically no thought, I pay the minimum and that's it. It's a nice idea to come closer to starting on paying of this one as well. At that time it'll also mean another conversation with my partner. Basically stuff is happening, and faster than I imagined.
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On the other side of the puzzle is my uncle. I got a call a few weeks back from another uncle he's was in direct financial problems. He needed money to get his car back from the garage, but didn't have any. And, he can't do without, as he starts work at 4am and there's no public transport at that time. But without being able to go to work, he wouldn't get the money to get his car, which prevented him from going to work in the first place.

So in the end I've ended up lending him 1000 Euro's from my (small) savings to get back up. Unfortunately it wasn't as well thought out as the deal with my bf. No contract as of yet, and not really a payments plan either. I did visit him for a long Sunday afternoon and together we went through all his finances, and created a budget that should guide him back to financial health. But looking back I'd be happier to have something on paper beforehand. So I guess I'd better work that out.
Then again, part of me has also figured that realisticly I'm not getting any money back for the next year at least.

At least I've made very clear that this is a one time loan, stick to the budget or get kicked out of your home.

So today I've done an update of my budget which I do every few months. Nothing big changed, but I did notice a note next to my clothes budget. So, I went back to see how long I've had this in there. And it's actually been in there since I started budgeting in November 2009.

What the note said?

"Obligatory amount to spend, you need clothes even if you hate to shop."

Funnily enough, I've never in all that time managed to spend the budgeted amount on clothes. That's three years! So that's where my extra money comes from every month.

This is extra funny since I've needed new jeans since like forever and I'd said I'd go buy one for the last three weeks. So I'd better go out in a bit and shop. Or not in a bit, but like now.

2013. Wow, time flies. Last year around this time I said:



So how did I do?
162 euros per month minimum payment government loan (total 1944 euro) Yes Paid of exactly that.

670 euros per month other loan (total 8056) Yes paid of the complete E19.000!! Partially due to a refund from the taxes, but I've also very aggressively increased payments throughout the year. Come December there was 2000 left, which was my emergency fund. I've decided to get rid of the loan with it.

300 euros per month emergency fund (3600) No I've increased the emergency fund to 2000 round May and left it at that. Until last month paying of the loan. Currently at E150

That totals about 21.000 Euri increase in my networth in a year time.

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So plans for next year?

1. Get the emergency fund up to 3k
2. Increase payments on government loan to 500 euro per month for a total of 6000 - And find out how much is left
3. Start saving

A difficulty for last year is I'll be getting only 70% of my wages starting February. Due to my mental issues I've now not been able to work for almost a year. Luckily laws prevent my boss to fire me during the first 2 years of an illness (this is seen as a calculatable businessrisk). The first year you get full wages, the second year 70%. I'm slowly getting better and am currently working 2 *3 hours a week. But there's no way I'll be back to fulltime come Feb, so that'll take a big bite out of my income. Can't say I feel it's unfair, but it's nasty either way. So the total payments for next year really depend on how long it'll take before I'm back to normal. At least there's progress, 2013 is going to be my year.

Feel better! YOu've made a lot of progress for 2012.