Hello, my name is Shady Slim. I understand that you are going to help me figure out my gross income for the year, whatever that means. It's been a busy year and I'm a busy man, so let me give you the lowdown on my life, and you can do your thing.

I was unemployed at the beginning of the year and got $2,000 in unemployment compensation. I later got a job as a manager for Roca Cola. I earned $55,000 in base salary this year. My boss gave me a $5,000 Christmas bonus on December 22, but I decided to hold on to that check and not cash it until next year so that I won't have to pay taxes on it this year. Pretty smart, huh?

As part of my manager duties, I get to decide on certain things, like contracts, for the company. My good buddy, Eddie, runs a bottling company. I made sure that he won the bottling contract for Roca Cola for this year (even though his contract wasnt quite the best). Eddie bought me a Corvette this year for being such a good friend. It Corvette cost $50,000, and I'm sure he bought it for me out of the goodness of his heart. What a great guy!

Here's a bit of good luck for the year: Upon leaving my office one day, I found $8,000 lying in the street! Well, one person's bad luck is my good luck, right? I like to gamble a lot. I won a $220,000 poker tournament in Las Vegas this year. I also won about $5,000 over the year playing the guys at our Friday night game. Can you believe that I didnt lose anything this year?

Speaking of the guys, one of them said that I should put that money I won at gamblingwell, $200,000 of itinto an annuity? So I did just that, and now I'll get $1,000 a month for the next 20 years. I already got $3,000 of it! Please tell me none of that is taxable!

My ex-wife, Alice, is still paying me alimony. She's a lawyer who divorced me a few years ago because I was "unethical, or something like that. Since she was making so much money and I was unemployed at the time, the judge ruled that she had to pay me alimony. Isnt that something? She sent me $3,000 in alimony payments this year. She still kind of likes me, though; she sent me a check for $500 as a Christmas gift this year. (I didn't get her anything, though.)

So, there you go...that's this year in a nutshell.

Can you figure out my gross income? And since youre a student, this is free, right? Thanks, I owe you one! Let me know if I can get you a six-pack of Roca Cola or something.