The US American income tax return took me more than two weeks to complete, and a number of other activities held me back from posting here. Could you imagine anything more complicated and tedious than a German tax declaration? Come to the US and you'll see!
I not only have to pay business tax and personal property tax in Alexandria, but also sales tax in Virginia, state income taxes in Maryland and Virginia, and finally federal income tax for the great country itself. All of them with their own forms and procedures. The main federal tax form ("the" 1040) comes with more than 200 pages of instructions.
Unfortunately, "Turbo Tax", the american equivalent of "WISO Steuer", is only partially helpful. It doesn't know, for example, what a "married non-resident alien" is, and which forms to use if you are a self-employed spouse of a German diplomat (who doesn't have and never will get the social security number that the software thinks is absolutely neccessary). Quite some fun to get along with that... ;-)
Anyway, here is a picture that I shot today:
Just playing around with the new 1.8/75mm on the OM-D. What a great piece of glass! The lens is a bit on the heavy side, but its optical qualities are fabulous. Nobody has ever posted a negative comment on Amazon.com - and neither will I.
Stay tuned, there'll be more on Potomac Adventures soon!
