Tax Time!

Tax season is my least favorite time of year. It is not that I mind paying income taxes at all. It is the filing. Our long-time CPA retired two years ago, and I am back to preparing my own taxes.

Honestly, I do not think he really retired – he just retired me. He told me the year before that I was smart enough to prepare and file my own taxes now that we no longer owned any businesses. Ha!

Thank God for Turbo Tax or I would be in big trouble. I can follow their step-by-step instructions to the T. I am really smart that way. Give me a form and I can fill it out without stressing. The entire time I am working with Turbo Tax I wonder, “If there is a computer glitch or a programming error will the IRS understand?”

In forty-nine years of tax filings, we have only ever had one error on our taxes, and it was by a paid preparer. He claimed we had three dependents when we had two. I was eighteen, it was my first income tax filing. Prior to that my income was below the threshold for reporting as I was a full-time student and still a dependent on my parent’s return. Lesson learned.

We did not use that preparer again and with a little help from other adults I did my own taxes, by hand pre-home computer days, until Greg and I started our own business in 1991. Our tax guy was amazing. Then he retired (or at least retired my business) …

Last night when we got home from our evening out, and after I wrote my daily blog, I decided to tackle our taxes this year. Federal along with two state returns. At 3:00 am I hit submit and went to bed. This is the closest I have been to an all-nighter in years!

This morning Megan and I began to tackle her taxes around 9:00am. We stopped about 12:30pm as we are stuck with resolving a snafu at Wright County on how her house is categorized. We will call the assessor’s office this week and hope it can get fixed before April 15^th. This is necessary to file her Minnesota state taxes.

Still, this year is a bit easier than some years when I was collecting tax information on four family members for two different CPAs to file their taxes. Each CPA had their own packet for collecting tax information which made my head spin some days. Back then I was working full-time and involved in three different community organizations as a volunteer.

I always like to file earlier rather than later so I know what the damage will be and can work it into my budget. Fortunately, our CPA taught me how to estimate taxes in the upcoming year so that we do not get hit with a big payment due. Again, I have no trouble with paying taxes. I look at it as paying my “citizenship dues.”

I see lots of memes this time of the year about how unreasonable taxes are and how people would be better served to keep the money themselves and save it for retirement or for a rainy day. I am convinced that is not going to happen. I think people are more willing and apt to spend $100 at Target for stuff than to donate money willingly to support the infrastructure in our country. And saving money? Ha! That is difficult for many people I know. It requires discipline (trust me, I struggle with this as well and I have been automatically saving from every paycheck for over thirty years now. Joe and I still save money in retirement from our social security checks before we spend any money on extras).

Saving is not just about discipline. It is also about the fact that minimum wage in the United States has not kept up over the years with inflation. Read Robert Reich to get a clear understanding of economics in the U.S. today. https://robertreich.org/

It is hard for many to save when they barely make enough (before taxes) to afford the necessities like housing and food. For those who believe churches and other charity organizations should step in and help. I agree that would be lovely. There are churches that do. Not enough though.

Oh, goodness I could go on and on about what we can and should do. Frankly, it is simply easier for me to pay my taxes each year and let the government take care of things like building roads, funding the military, and making sure people that are going through rough times have a safety net. By the way, I love that last year the Minnesota Governor signed into law a free lunch for all students in Minnesota. That is amazing. I believe they also can get a breakfast. Our grandchildren will usually eat one free lunch meal a week, otherwise they prefer taking their own lunch.

Anyway, back to taxes. Ours are filed. Megan’s are almost filed. I do not need to be concerned yet about anyone else’s taxes. It is a good day.