I hate taxes
April 2, 2009 | Just thinking out loud
I know. They pave the roads. Take care of the sewer. Fund our schools. It’s not the actual chipping in that I mind. It’s the April 15th dig-up-all-the-receipts that I dread.
I’m fairly organized. I’ll give you an example. Earlier this year I received a phone call from the Wagoner County court clerk. She said that I was in big trouble.
“Really,” I said. “What for?” I hadn’t been in trouble with the law or sued in like — ever.
She said it was over an item we bought in 2001. I tried to think back 8 years. Nothing. In fact, I couldn’t remember what I bought last month week.
She listed the item and it all flooded back. Richard and I purchased it. When we got home, it didn’t work. We contacted the gentlemen within 24 hours. He took it back with a hefty ”return” fee and we walked away rather than fight. He sent a letter to the court and they responded to him with “you are lucky they didn’t complain about you, we think you committed fraud”. They cc’d us. I kept the copy.
The court clerk said she didn’t have a copy of the letter I was talking about. She said that I needed to pay $1,800 plus court costs.
I went to my files. I pulled out the bill of sale, the correspondence, and the DA’s response to the man and faxed them.
The court clerk said, “Oh, I’m sorry. We had a glitch in the new system. This showed up as a new complaint. You are right. Never mind.”
Never mind.
Never mind that my heart raced for an hour while I tracked down the correspondence, and for any problems it might have caused if I hadn’t kept good records, or kept the ten years instead of three required by law. I asked them to send me another letter stating it was a glitch. It will be added to my files.
So, back to taxes. I do have the receipts. They are in order. On the outside looking in, I look organized.
The problem is that I don’t enter them month to month. I leave that to tax time and then it’s a marathon session of typing the myriad of self-employed freelance entries into Quicken, matching receipts to entries, and figuring out what is taxable vs. what is not.
I promise myself every year I’ll do this by the month, or week to week. I never do. I’ve been making that promise for two decades.
So back to work.
IRS, I do not ♥ you and I know I make our relationship tougher than it should be.
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I know better than to delve into taxes. My Hunny does them every year. Me and paperwork? Not friends. Not even acquaintances. Ew.
April 7th, 2009 at 1:33 pm