role: user

text:
<environment_context>
  <shell>zsh</shell>
  <current_date>2026-03-21</current_date>
  <timezone>America/Chicago</timezone>
</environment_context>


text: i have a bunch of tax documents in ~/Downloads that were downloaded today.   can you cp them to appropriate locations in this legal dir?


role: assistant

text: Using local file inspection only. I’m checking today’s `~/Downloads` tax docs and the existing repo layout so I can copy them into the right place.


text: I found six PDFs downloaded today. I’m checking naming/layout now so I can copy them into a clean tax folder structure instead of dumping them into one bucket.


text: `pdftotext` isn’t installed here. I’m switching to Spotlight metadata / lightweight extraction so I can still verify what each PDF is before I file it.


text: I can file these from the filenames alone, but there’s one ambiguous personal-return PDF. I’m doing one extra pass with `PDFKit` so I don’t mislabel it.


text: I’ve got the mapping. I’m copying the PDFs into a dedicated tax tree under `records/financial/tax`, with personal and Snow Day returns separated.


text: `cp` tripped over macOS extended attributes on the first PDF. I’m retrying with xattrs stripped so the copies land cleanly in-repo.


text: `cp -X` still hits the same macOS copy path. I’m bypassing it and writing the file bytes directly, which avoids the metadata problem.


text:
Copied the six tax PDFs into a new tax tree under `records/financial/tax`, and added a trace note in `records/financial/tax/README.md:1`.

- Personal returns:
  - `records/financial/tax/personal/2020_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`
  - `records/financial/tax/personal/2022_personal_1040_return.pdf`
  - `records/financial/tax/personal/2023_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`
  - `records/financial/tax/personal/2024_personal_federal_missouri_st_louis_city_returns.pdf`
- Snow Day corporate returns:
  - `records/financial/tax/business/snow_day_project_inc/2023_federal_missouri_st_louis_1120_returns.pdf`
  - `records/financial/tax/business/snow_day_project_inc/2024_federal_missouri_st_louis_1120_returns.pdf`

One note: macOS `cp` choked on extended attributes, so I copied the file bytes directly instead. Same result, less drama.

Want me to do the next obvious pass and make a `tax timeline` note that says what years we now have and what’s still missing?


text: how do i get cp to work?  it's making me crazy.


text:
It’s a macOS metadata problem, not a PDF problem.

`cp` on macOS tries to copy extra junk along with the file bytes — extended attributes, Finder metadata, resource forks. Your `~/project/...` path is likely on a mount/filesystem that won’t accept those, so `cp` dies with `fcopyfile failed: Operation not permitted`.

Use this:

- `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 cp ~/Downloads/'2022 1040.pdf' records/financial/tax/personal/2022_personal_1040_return.pdf`

For a lot of files:

- `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 cp ~/Downloads/*.pdf records/financial/tax/personal/`

If you want a permanent helper in `zsh`, use a shell function:

- `cpx() { COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 command cp "$@"; }`

Then:

- `cpx ~/Downloads/'2022 1040.pdf' records/financial/tax/personal/2022_personal_1040_return.pdf`

If `cp` still acts feral, use one of these:
- `rsync -rt --no-xattrs src dst`
- `ditto --norsrc src dst`

Short version: it’s the macOS xattrs colliding with the mount. `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1` is usually the clean fix.


text: there's no switch to do this???


text:
Not a normal `cp` flag on macOS, no.

Annoying bit: Apple’s `cp` uses the `copyfile(3)` machinery under the hood, and the practical control for “don’t bring the Finder goo” is the environment variable:

- `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 cp ...`

There is `-X` on some BSD/macOS `cp` builds for extended attributes/resource forks, but as you just saw, it doesn’t reliably bypass the `fcopyfile` path on every filesystem/mount combination. So the thing that actually works is usually the env var, not a nice tidy flag.

If you want a command that *does* have a clearer switch, use:

- `rsync -rt --no-xattrs source dest`

or

- `ditto --norsrc source dest`

But for plain old `cp`, the real answer is: `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1`. Classic Apple nonsense.


text: ok - you got all the files?  one was a zip file?


text: I’m checking `~/Downloads` again so I can answer that cleanly instead of guessing.


text:
I got the six top-level files downloaded today, and they were all PDFs.

I did **not** see a zip in today’s `~/Downloads` scan:
- `2022 1040.pdf`
- `2023 1040 StiefvaterDonahue.pdf`
- `2023 1120 SnowDayProjectInc.pdf`
- `2024 1120 SnowDayProjectInc.pdf`
- `2024 federal, MO & STL city returns.pdf`
- `Fed & MO 1040 StiefvaterandDonahueKarlGandElisabethG.pdf`

So if there was a zip, it’s either:
- not downloaded today,
- not in top-level `~/Downloads`,
- or named something odd and landed elsewhere.

If you want, I can do a tight search for recent `.zip` files in `~/Downloads` next.


text: what about attachment.zip?


text: I’m checking specifically for `attachment.zip` in `~/Downloads` and whether it was created today.


text:
`attachment.zip` is there, but it’s old.

- Path: `~/Downloads/attachment.zip`
- Modified: `2022-10-04 16:29:25`
- Size: `1,114,937` bytes

So I did **not** include it in the tax-doc copy, because your request was for files downloaded today. If that zip is part of the tax set, say the word and I’ll inspect it and file it properly.


text: it's not old, but maybe it has an old timestamp.  also, it seems to be encrypted and i don't know the password.


text: I’ll inspect the zip container without extracting it, so we can see whether it’s actually a tax bundle and whether the contents are encrypted.


text: I checked it. `attachment.zip` contains one encrypted file: `2021 1040 StiefvaterDonahue.pdf`. I’m copying the zip into the personal tax folder and marking it as encrypted so it doesn’t get lost.


text:
Yep. `attachment.zip` is relevant after all.

- It contains exactly one file: `2021 1040 StiefvaterDonahue.pdf`
- The zip entry is `encrypted`
- I copied it to `records/financial/tax/personal/2021_personal_1040_return_encrypted.zip`
- I noted that in `records/financial/tax/README.md:1`

So the personal tax folder now has:
- `2020_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`
- `2021_personal_1040_return_encrypted.zip`
- `2022_personal_1040_return.pdf`
- `2023_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`
- `2024_personal_federal_missouri_st_louis_city_returns.pdf`

If you want, next I can make a simple `tax inventory` note listing which years we have for personal vs Snow Day, and which one is still locked behind the zip password.


text: I’m checking that PDF quickly and then I’ll file it into the tax tree with the rest.


text: It’s a readable `2018` joint federal `1040`. I’m copying it into the personal tax folder with a sane filename and adding one line to the tax README.


text:
Filed it.

- Copied to `records/financial/tax/personal/2018_personal_federal_1040_return.pdf`
- Added a note in `records/financial/tax/README.md:1`

That one was easy to identify: it’s a readable `2018` joint federal `1040`, and I normalized the absurd double `.pdf.pdf` name.


text: /Users/qarl/Downloads/2019_TaxReturn.pdf.pdf /Users/qarl/Downloads/Fed\ \&\ MO\ 1040\ StiefvaterandDonahueKarlGandElisabethG.pdf


text: I’m checking the `2019` PDF and whether that second path is just the `2020` file I already filed.


text: The `2019` file is readable, but the first extractable page starts on a 2020 estimated-tax voucher. I’m doing one more pass to confirm the actual tax year before I file it.


text: Confirmed: the first one is your `2019` joint `1040`. The second path is exactly the same file I already copied in as `2020_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`. I’m filing `2019` now and noting it in the tax README.


text:
Filed.

- Added `records/financial/tax/personal/2019_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`
- Updated `records/financial/tax/README.md:1`

And the second path:
- `~/Downloads/Fed & MO 1040 StiefvaterandDonahueKarlGandElisabethG.pdf`

was already copied earlier as:
- `records/financial/tax/personal/2020_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf`

I verified they’re byte-for-byte identical.


text: ok - what years do we have?


text:
**Tax Years**
- Personal returns on hand: `2018`, `2019`, `2020`, `2021`, `2022`, `2023`, `2024`
- Snow Day corporate returns on hand: `2023`, `2024`

**Where**
- Personal: `records/financial/tax/personal`
- Snow Day: `records/financial/tax/business/snow_day_project_inc`

**Caveat**
- `2021` is only present as `records/financial/tax/personal/2021_personal_1040_return_encrypted.zip` — the enclosed PDF is password-protected.

If you want, I can make a one-page inventory note that lists `have / missing / locked`.


text: in the personal tax forms - can you find a large capital gains tax for around year 2022?


text: I’m pulling the personal return text and searching for `capital gain`, `Schedule D`, and the tax / payment lines. That should tell us whether there’s a large gains event in the return set before I try OCR on the scan-only PDFs.


text: I found two clear capital-gains years already: `2018` and `2019`. I’m doing a tighter extraction on the `2023` return now, because if there’s a “large gains around 2022” story, that filing is the next likely place it would show up.


text: The `2023` return does **not** show a big gain event — it actually carries a `-$3,000` capital loss on the federal summary. So the likely place for a large event is the scan-only `2022` return. I’m OCRing that now.


text: The full-doc OCR is too blunt. I’m narrowing it to the pages that should contain the actual 1040 and Schedule D, so we get an answer faster.


text: The OCR pass is still grinding. I’m dropping the resolution and page count — enough to answer the question without burning the afternoon.


text: The 2022 OCR is rough, but the cover letter already shows one concrete thing: a federal balance due of about `$19,190` and a Missouri refund of about `$318`. I’m checking the later pages where Schedule D would normally live.


text:
Short answer: `not yet for 2022 specifically`.

What I can confirm from the personal returns:
- `2018` shows a large long-term capital gain of about `$113,040` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2018_personal_federal_1040_return.pdf:1`.
- `2019` shows a long-term capital gain of about `$18,620` and an amount owed of about `$13,257` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2019_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`.
- `2023` does **not** show a large gain event; it shows `Capital Gains -$3,000` on the tax summary in `records/financial/tax/personal/2023_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`.

For `2022`:
- the PDF at `records/financial/tax/personal/2022_personal_1040_return.pdf:1` is scan-based and OCR is rough.
- I can see from the CPA cover letter that there was a federal balance due of about `$19,190`, but I have **not** confirmed that this was specifically from capital gains.

So the defensible answer is:
- `yes, there is a clearly large capital-gains year in 2018`
- `no clear large capital-gains event is visible in 2023`
- `2022 still needs either better OCR or manual review to prove it was capital gains rather than just tax due`

If you want, I can make a tight note: `confirmed gains years / tax due years / unresolved 2022`.


text: why do you have a background terminal running?


text:
Because a couple of the PDF/OCR inspections were long enough that the shell tool returned a live session instead of a finished result. That leaves a background exec session ID around until it exits or I poll it.

It wasn’t a daemon or anything persistent I set up on purpose. Just long-running `swift` OCR commands.

If you want, I can check whether any sessions are still actually running and stop using the long OCR path.


text: ok - what did you find for capital gains?


text:
Here’s the clean read so far:

- `2018` definitely has a large long-term capital gain: about `$113,040` on Schedule D in `records/financial/tax/personal/2018_personal_federal_1040_return.pdf:1`.
- `2019` has a smaller but still material long-term capital gain: about `$18,620` on Schedule D in `records/financial/tax/personal/2019_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`.
- `2023` does **not** show a big gain event; it shows `-$3,000` capital gains on the tax summary and capital-loss carryovers into 2024 in `records/financial/tax/personal/2023_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`.
- `2022` is still unresolved. The file at `records/financial/tax/personal/2022_personal_1040_return.pdf:1` is scan-based, and the OCR was too noisy to cleanly confirm a Schedule D / capital-gain amount.

So: I have confirmed big capital gains in `2018`, some capital gains in `2019`, and **not yet** a confirmed big capital-gains number in `2022`.

If you want, I can keep pushing on `2022` specifically and extract just the 1040 / Schedule D pages.


text: yes please.  no other cap gains in the years?


text: I’m checking `2020` directly and then doing a narrower OCR pass on just the middle of the `2022` package. That should answer the “any other gains years?” question cleanly.


text: The `2022` summary page is there; the fast OCR is just garbling it. I’m re-running that single summary page at higher quality.


text: The summary page confirms `2022` was not a huge-income year. I’m checking the actual `1040` pages now so I can pin down whether line 7 had a gain, a loss, or zero.


text: The quick OCR path hit a wall. I’m checking whether `tesseract` or another local OCR tool is installed, because that’ll be much cleaner than trying to bully `PDFKit` into it.


text: `tesseract` is installed. I’m using that now on the `2022` PDF, page-by-page, instead of the shaky Vision OCR.


text: The full scan didn’t surface obvious keywords. I’m targeting the `2022 Tax Summary` page directly with `tesseract` next; that page should at least tell us whether there’s a capital-gains line and roughly how big it is.


text: `tesseract` on that page came back empty, which means the render settings are off rather than the page being blank. I’m sanity-checking on the CPA cover letter page and then I’ll reuse the working settings on the 1040 pages.


text: I’m trying Ghostscript’s text device once. If the scan has any hidden text layer, that’ll surface it immediately without more OCR nonsense.


text: I’ve got `2020` cleanly now: no net capital gain. I’m taking one quick look at the `2024` cover/summary pages so I can answer the “other years” part without hand-waving.


text:
Yes. Here’s the current map from the personal returns:

- `2018` — confirmed large long-term capital gain of about `$113,040` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2018_personal_federal_1040_return.pdf:1`
- `2019` — confirmed long-term capital gain of about `$18,620` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2019_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`
- `2020` — no net capital gain; the return shows `Net capital gain ... 0` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2020_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`
- `2021` — unknown; it’s locked inside `records/financial/tax/personal/2021_personal_1040_return_encrypted.zip:1`
- `2022` — I have **not** cleanly extracted the capital-gains line, but the summary page OCR shows roughly `AGI $40,228`, `taxable income $14,328`, `total tax $432` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2022_personal_1040_return.pdf:1`, so this does **not** look like a large capital-gains year
- `2023` — no big gain; it shows `Capital Gains -$3,000` in `records/financial/tax/personal/2023_personal_federal_and_missouri_1040_return.pdf:1`
- `2024` — not resolved yet from the scan-based package in `records/financial/tax/personal/2024_personal_federal_missouri_st_louis_city_returns.pdf:1`

So the defensible answer right now is: aside from `2018` and `2019`, I do **not** see another confirmed capital-gains year in the readable set.

If you want, I’ll do one more pass on `2024` and then write a short `capital gains by tax year` note.