Monday, June 18, 2007

Trying To Be a Good Sport

Still reading, still working my way through those "just to make sure" books. So far, little joy, although there was one lead for a future project I have in mind.

Most of today was taken up with my first-ever visit to a tax accountant. My fellowship arrangement with my college is such that I'll be "donating" the entire amount of my fellowship to the college, in exchange for which they will continue to pay me salary and benefits while I'm gone. Sounds good, right? Except for this: the fellowship money is taxable. I had hoped that, because it was a donation, I could write it off. But it turns out that it may not work that way.

In any case, I'm trying to tell myself that a slight tax hit (to the tune of less than $1,000 for each of the two tax years that the fellowship period straddles) is a small price to pay for the privilege of having a year to do nothing but work on the book. And it is! But I still can't help being a little bitter about having to pay taxes on money that I'll never get to spend.

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