Allow me to walk you through the range of emotions I feel on Tax Day, after discovering that I've checked the wrong box on my employment paperwork and that I owe the Government and TurboTax some hard-earned dinero.
Here is a visual representation, in baseball card form, of how both my wallet and I feel:
Confused...
...annoyed...
...pained...
...and beaten.
Always remember to make sure you you fill out pedantic paperwork correctly - if you glaze over it, that will almost certainly come back to bite you in the butt. I've learned this lesson the hard way.
Okay, I'm probably (definitely) being overly-dramatic here. While it's uber-frustrating to owe the government money after grueling through my taxes and disappointing to not get a tax return for the first time in my life, it's not a huge amount of money and I can easily absorb the unexpected expense. I just needed an outlet and this blog is my most trusted place of fairly anonymous expression.
However, I hope Tax Day goes better for all of you reading this than it did for me.
Always remember a refund just means you made an interest-free loan to the government. The people I know jumping up and down because they are getting $3K back never think about that.
ReplyDeleteIdeally your tax bill should be ZERO when you finish your 1040.
All the above was my father the accountant's annual lecture. Doing taxes sux. Making an error sux worse. Been there myself.
BTW...I don't see any cork flying out of Sosa'a bat. ;-)
I think everyone should be given tax day off. No one is in a good mood.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Commishbob. If you're responsible with money you shouldn't be happy about using the IRS as a zero interest savings account. But I understand why you feel like you do. I love the line in Taxman, "If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet."
ReplyDeleteLove the shot on that Vasko card. He should have been wearing a helmet. Oh wait, I keep forgetting they didn't wear helmets back then.
ReplyDeleteNice post. It's a good thing I have a friend who is my CPA. He does all of the box checking for me.
ReplyDeleteI ended up with a big refund last year because my filing status changed but I didn't bother with the paperwork to change withholding in a timely manner. This year that was corrected and I was rewarded with a laughably small refund (think dollar menu meal for one, haha).
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