thyladydulcinea

I have a question about valuing donations of goods to charities for writeoff on federal taxes. I have some items I want to give to charity. How do I value the writeoffs? These are NEW items I bought specifically to donate to charity. I was told that I could writeoff full retail value plus tax (what the item is worth), even if I purchased the item for less. Another person said that I will be setting myself up to get audited and the auditor will demand store receipts. I thought that the receipts required are the ones that the charity issues. I mean, I saw a couponing show where the contestants donate ALL of their items to food banks - if their final bill was $0 after coupons and they donated $6000 WORTH of food to the food bank, wouldn't they get to write off $6000? I am planning to do a LOT of charitable giving in the coming year so I want to make sure that I find the correct information on this matter. So, if I pay $1 for a piece of clothing that was $9.99, I think I should be able to donate it to Goodwill and writeoff $10.59 ($9.99 plus tax). I've done some research and come up with confusing answers. Can someone with expertise please point me in the right direction? I just want to help out my community and itemize some donations on my taxes, maybe even enough to roll over to the next year if I hit the maximum. :-)

Hi. I had a capital loss in 2009 and I hit the maximum of $3000, so I had another roughly $2000 of capital loss that was supposed to carry over to 2010. I didn't file my 2010 tax return because it was 100% unemployment, I expected no return, and I had paid in nothing. I thought it would be nothing more than paying a tax preparer a fee. I worked most of 2011 and now I want my tax preparer to do both years. He told me that if I file that capital loss for 2010, I'll have to pay a late fee that will wipe out any chance of a return. I have been advised not to file 2010 at all. I just wonder if that would mess up my 2011 return at all since I had a baby in 2010. FYI, I am the sole provider of my family; husband doesn't work or get income of any kind; we have 4 small kids and the last one was born in 2010. The advice I got is confusing to me! If there is a late penalty for that capital loss, can't I just not put the capital loss on the return? Will anything bad happen to me if I don't submit a return for 2010? Any help here? THANKS!!

I'm in the state of Michigan. I want to know if I have a shot of winning in small claims court if I sue the mobile home park where we live. We have a "lease to own" agreement. In short, they purchased costly homeowners insurance for my place supposedly because I didn't have any (but I did, and I can prove it). I want to sue them for the insurance they double charged me for, plus a large administration fee and the refund of a late fee that I would not have incurred were it not for their outrageous charges and the fact that they apply payments toward fees first.

We're required to have homeowners insurance, which we do. I gave proof when I moved in (Sept 2009) and again when I switched insurance companies (sometime in mid-2010). The office recently put a notice on our door to get homeowners insurance or pay a fine, but it had the neighbor's address on it. I called them to let them know they'd put the notice on the wrong door; the lady said someone would pick it up, but no one did. The next month I got another notice on my door, this time with our address on it, stating that this is a final notice to get homeowner's insurance. This was in January when I went down to pay the February rent, so it was in late January 2010 that I learned that they thought I didn't have homeowner's insurance. I told the office that the "final" notice was my first notice because the other one had the neighbor's address on it so they would need to give me more time, but I would get some kind of printout from the insurance company.

Less than 2 weeks later, on February 7, they purchased a policy for our mobile home. The first I heard about it was when I went to pay the March rent; I was told I had to pay $1209 for the homeowner's insurance, plus $150 administration fee, and then my lot rent, house payment and water bill. I grabbed my money orders back (for the house payment, lot rent and water bill) and said, "I can't give you that much money! I would have to use this to move tomorrow!"

I went and got proof of insurance and brought that back. They canceled the policy but still made me pay for one month of their insurance coverage ($100.75) plus the administration fee ($150) and there was a late charge as well ($50) because they took the money orders I had for our normal bills with them and applied them first toward their fees, and I couldn't pay the rest until the March 9th. I can prove the mobile home was continuously insured for the entire disputed time. The office lady claimed that notices are not put on doors and that everything goes out through the mail. We only received one notice by mail and that was a notice sent sometime in February that the policy had been purchased. The lady points to a pile of duplicate letters in a folder as if that's proof that notices are sent out. I don't think that would hold up in court - wouldn't they need proof of delivery, unless I admit that something was received? Because much of what she says they mailed, they did NOT mail.

Someone said they thought that what the office did is illegal. Does anyone have an expert opinion?

Lastly, if they win can they make me pay for their legal fees for court? The owner of the park is an attorney so no doubt there would be lots of legal fees to be paid if so. I cannot afford a lawyer, but I'm not in the mood to be steamrolled for $300.75 either, so I would be representing myself in small claims court. Please tell me I have a prayer. These people prey upon everyone here because no one can afford to fight back. No doubt they'll find a way to get back at me, but I still want to win the $300.75 back.

Hi. We have a black moor fantail goldfish that we've had for 18 months. Of course he has bulgy eyes - all black moors do - but we noticed during the tank cleaning last night that one of his eyes appears to be much bigger than the other now. Is this normal, or do we need to look into treating him (or his water) for an infection or something? We don't know a lot about fish but the kids sure love this little guy. He has quite a charming personality. Really. Thanks for reading.

I want to purchase a 6-unit property and live in one of the units, and manage the property myself. It will be partially rented out per month, partially a bed & breakfast with 3 rooms available nightly, and my husband will be teaching cooking classes there. Is such an idea worthy of a business plan, and could we get it financed? We have a credit challenge. I just want to know if this is plausible and whether we should/could go ahead with putting together a business plan. The home I am eyeing is very large and pretty old, but beautifully maintained and the price is right. Please advise!

Seriously, the color ink is getting expensive! I do not see any kind of option to print in grayscale only from Safari's print dialog. I'm used to Windows, where this is easy to find. Where is it hidden for Mac users??

Hello. I am wanting to be able to print more than 2 coupons on smartsource.com, coupons.com or individual websites such as smithfield.com (bacon). I've tried some of the proxies at proxy.org to see if an anonymizer would make any difference, and it did not. I don't have access to more than one computer for printing. Does anyone else know of a way around the print 2 limit? Thanks in advance!

I have a tax question. We now live in Michigan but our January 2008 foreclosure was a property in Utah. We were unable to sell it and had to let it go back to the bank. They told us that it would be auctioned and we would get a 1099 tax form for the short sale amount (their loss). They were unable to auction it off, so we got a tax form for the ENTIRE amount of the mortgage, as if this is income! On top of everything else we have been through, are we gonna have to pay tens of thousands of dollars on this? The property became a HUD home and now belongs to SOMEONE... why should we have to pay tax on the property amount as if the whole thing was our income? This is so screwed up and unfair. Plus, we had mortgage insurance, so how on earth can they say that this is our income?? The mortgage insurance is in place to pay off the bank in case of default!

Please, no ignorant comments. We TRIED to save this situation but we were victims of an unfair mortgage like many others, PLUS my husband suddenly became disabled and unable to work while I was very pregnant with our 3rd child in a very dangerous pregnancy. We had to move out of state to save our family and were forbidden by the bank to rent out the property, which was worth $30,000 less at the time than what we paid for it 5 years previously. We had a pile of medical bills the size of a mortgage and had to move in with family for help with this difficult situation. So to anyone wanting to post some snarky remark about paying bills, don't. The last thing we wanted was to end up in a situation like this!

If there's anybody out there who can help us with this tax question, we would appreciate the input or advice. We are having our taxes done Monday so I guess we will find out at that time, but we're extremely anxious about the situation and any information will help. Thank you.

This question is for anyone who has been on the "Mini Pill" (Errin). Has this birth control done anything screwy with your periods? Right away I started having a cycle every 15 days, which got lighter and lighter and now it's down to nothing, or an occasional peach mucousy smear at most.

I know several people who swear (jokingly) that these are actually fertility pills. ;-) Given what this medication has done to my cycle, how am I ever supposed to know (short of peeing in a cup every month) if I'm pregnant? I really don't want to worry about this all the time!

There aren't many backup methods of contraception for us because I am allergic to latex and nonoxynol-9 (spermicide). I suppose I could cut my husband off for a certain number of days in a month but something tells me he would frown at this idea.

Should I switch pills?

My 5-year-old son is obsessed with death. He talks about it constantly. Not only that, but he has come up with some really weird scenarios to try to rationalize the concept. I'm at a loss as to what to tell him!

He is terrified that he (or any of us) is going to die. He keeps saying "Mommy, I don't want to die for a long long long time!" He asks about Uncle Mike (my brother) who died of cancer 3 years ago, wanting to know if Mike will be alive again or if he is a robot in heaven. He got my mother really upset talking about this whole robot business. He asks whether boys become girls when they die and vice versa...

We are Christians, so we believe in heaven, an afterlife & resurrection.

We have stopped watching "scary" TV shows.

My son is not capable of understanding the answers to all the questions he asks. How do I make him understand death without scaring him? I also don't want to lie. Yes, we all will eventually die but I want him to feel safe. Help?

Yesterday on one of the episodes of America's Next Top Model, the hopefuls shot commercials for Secret deodorant in which they had to say the line, "What's my secret?" -- and then fill in something! My favorite was "I LOVE men's underwear!"

My husband had a ball for hours entertaining ourselves with this question. We decided what our answers would be and made up secrets to reveal for each other, for our kids and family members. We found out we were pretty darned hilarious! Most of the lines the models came up with were lame. So...

So WHAT'S YOUR SECRET? Please share here! Nothing gross, please! Keep it G!

Some of our secrets:

"My food is my food. Your food is also my food." --Evan, almost 2

"ALL ZITS MUST DIE. I am their executioner!" --my husband

"I pick other peoples' noses."--me

"I only look out of one eye when I'm tired." --me

"And the FAN blah blah blah FAN blabber TURBINES chitter chatter FAN blah PLANE

motor mouth FAN FAN FAN..." --Grady, almost 5

I've heard that if I ask a bill collector (collection agency) not to call me by phone that they have to obey and not call me again. Is this true? I have a really nasty collector that calls EVERY DAY, sometimes more than once a day! I have asked them repeatedly to contact me by mail only and they are just the rudest and most harrassing people I have ever dealt with. They say that until the bill is paid in full they can call me as much as they want. And they do - all day, every day.

Is there any legal remedy? I am willing to pay a lawyer to write them a cease and dissist letter but I need to have a law to cite in it. PLEASE help!

Hi! I have an 8 - 1/2 year-old cockatiel hen who has just laid her first eggs. She laid two last week then nothing for 6 days until today. I found an egg in the bottom of the cage that is about 1 cm in width - the size of a parakeet egg! What happened? Is anything wrong? We don't have any parakeets, only her and a 4-month-old male so I know he isn't the culprit either, though he was sitting on the egg when I found it. They barely tolerate each other, plus he is very young, so I don't think they're getting it on.

Last year I lost another pet bird. We had to have her first egg surgically removed and the 2nd one killed her. She was 7 years old and had never laid eggs previously either.

The bird is acting pretty normal except being nasty to the baby bird in the cage & not wanting to be held or touched.

We've had 5 birds with egg problems and 3 of them have died, so I guess I'm just worried. To all the other cockatiel lovers out there, is there anything I should worry about?

I've been to several flooring stores and this question seems to mystify all the people I have talked to. I would like to fill some large cracks & mars in my unsightly 80's linoleum before reflooring. The people upstairs had 3 professionals in their place trying to remove theirs and finally gave up and refloored over it.

I purchased stick-on tile flooring which I think are vinyl, but the instructions say to fill all cracks in the under-flooring before laying them down.

So what product do I use to fill the cracks, and where can I get it?

We are actually on a really tight budget; we are laying down the peel-and-stick tiles that look like hardwood so that we don't have to look at the awful, stained carpet between now and the time we can afford Pergo. We are covering the living & dining room areas all in the peel-and-stick so we'll be covering the linoleum and ripping out the carpet to put the tiles down on the other portion of the big room.

All help appreciated!