1993 ST Tax Templates LDW Power Spreadsheet George Iken Houston Atari Computer Enthusiasts April 15th isn't far away, so it's that time of year again. But you can ease the feeling that Uncle Sam should have made an exemption for the mathematically impaired. No, you still need to do your taxes manually, but this year you can double check your calculations with a spreadsheet. All you need is an Atari ST computer (or MegaST, TT or Falcon), the LDW Power spread sheet program, and the HACE 1993 tax templates. Do you want a copy of the template? Download 93TAX.LZH from the HACE BBS (713-458-9923). The LZH file contains both an LDW file and an identical Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet. Wait a minute. Manually enter? Double check? Why not just enter it into the computer, let it do all the mental work, and me and my pencil will just transfer the data to the form. DON'T DO THAT. Here's why: You need to read the forms and understand each question. Some IRS rules require an individual to fill in a line differently than another individual. The spread sheet template may not absolutely accurately resolve each rule or fill in each line. The spread sheet is best used as a check of your calculations to warn you if there might be a mathematical error. To a lesser degree, the spread sheet may warn you if there is a rules interpretation problem, but not every rule can be properly treated in the spreadsheet. IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN YOUR MANUAL CALCULATION AND THE SPREADSHEET THAT YOU CANNOT RESOLVE....ASSUME THE SPREADSHEET IS INCORRECT. It remains your responsibility to correctly fill out your tax forms. The tax templates are an easy way to do quick comparisons (standard deduction vs itemized deductions for example). The forms and schedules in the template are interactive (enter a value in schedule A for instance, and the impact should show in the proper line on Form 1040. CAUTION: To retain full interactive calculation in the template, DO NOT ENTER VALUES IN CELLS WITH A DOLLAR SIGN. Those cells contain formulas which check values in other parts of the spread sheet. If you write over a formula you may lose much of the double checking capability for your manual calculations. Be sure the cursor is in the correct cell before entering any values. When you press RETURN, it's too late to undo it. If you see you are entering data in a cell you don't want to change, press ESC before pressing Return to abort that entry. If you make a mistake, you can always reload the blank worksheet and start over. Also, whenever you want, or when finished entering data, save your spreadsheet under a distinctive name (eg TOM1993.LDW, etc). The original BLANK spreadsheet is named 93TAX.LDW and it's generally best to not save individual data to that file name. Below is a listing of the cells occupied by the various forms. You can reach the upper left corner of those forms by pressing the F5 key, and typing a back slash (\) and then the schedule name or form number at the GOTO Prompt (eg. \1040, \A, \B, \2119, etc). Once you've moved to a new location in the spread sheet with the GOTO key, be sure to move the cursor to the correct data cell before beginning data entry into the form. ----------------------------------------------------- Form Cells 1040 A010..D091 Schedule A (itemized deductions) A093..D136 Schedule B (interest & dividends) A138..D158 Form 2106 (employee business expense) A160..D208 Schedule SE (social security tax) A210..D245 Form 2119 (sale of home) A247..D281 Schedule C (self employment income) F001..K043 Schedule D (capital gains) F045..K092 Schedule E (supplemental income) F094..K174 Form 3903 (moving expenses) F176..K206 Formula cells have a $ before them. Do not erase them All 0 cells without a $ are for you to fill in ----------------------------------------------------- The Houston Atari Computer Enthusiasts (HACE) are the original Atari club in Houston. Supporting all Atari computers, HACE meets the 4th Wednesday of each month, January thru October, and a combined Nov/Dec meeting held the 1st week of December. Meetings are held in the 3rd floor auditorium of the Transco Tower (12800 S Post Oak). Meetings are free, starting at 6:30 pm. HACE also publishes a newsletter which is mailed to members before each meeting. The HACE BBS (713-458-9923) is available to the Houston Atari community, with over 200 Mb of storage capacity, operating at 300 to 9600 baud. HACE is the sponsor of the annual Houston Atari Safari computer show. For information about joining HACE, call 713-493-0122 or write to: HACE, PO Box 820335, Houston TX, 77282-0335. These tax templates are based on an original work published in START, Volume 4, Number 9 (April, 1990) by Tom Chandler and Andrew Reese. The templates have been updated to match 1993 tax forms. DISCLAIMER: The templates may have undocumented errors, and should not be used alone for computing tax liability. Hardcopy (printing) of the forms from these templates are not accepted by the IRS. Neither START, the original authors, HACE or the current author is responsible for any mistakes that might be made in your tax calculation as a result of using these templates.