Monica: I usually try to get my taxes done as soon as I get my W-2 forms. For years, I used the 1040EZ form, as I was single, my income was modest, I didn't own property or my own business, and I didn't have kids or major medical expenses. That all changed when I got married. Suddenly taxes became a lot more complicated and I could no longer spend an easy afternoon at the kitchen table filling out a single form. Now I understand what all the headache is about when it comes to taxes. I am a pretty organized person, but this is ridiculous. Both my desk and my computer desktop are littered with forms and instructions, records and receipts. Filling out the 1040 is like being lost in some nightmare choose-your-own-adventure story. After hours of shuffling papers and numbers, I can't think straight in this disaster. Then Evelyn (as always) comes to the rescue and insists I use some free online tax software. Reluctantly, I try it (because I'm always a little suspicious of new technology that promises to simplify my life) and discover that yes, this is SO MUCH EASIER. My taxes are done and my desk is clean again. PHEW!
Evelyn: I have a fascination with niches…places to hide, store, and organize stuff in life. Les & Delene have some great little spaces, a bureau with dozens of tiny drawers, another shelf with odd cutouts. It reminds me of my grandmother's purse, full of pockets and zippers and places to hide things. I loved her purses when I was a child, and she used to let me wander around inside, exploring all the places she would tuck things, like a Kleenex, or a notebook, and often times little dolls for me to play with in church. There were hours of entertainment in one of her bags, and sometimes she would let me dump out the contents and organize it once again. All this reminds me of how I love nooks and crannies for all the parts of me that like to be hidden, or revealed, held or available…and sometimes dumped out and reorganized.
The IRS spends God knows how much of your tax money on these toll-free information hot lines staffed by IRS employees, whose idea of a dynamite tax tip is that you should print neatly. If you ask them a real tax question,such as how you can cheat, they're useless.
ReplyDeleteSo, for guidance, you want to look to big business. Big business never pays a nickel in taxes, according to Ralph Nader, who represents a big consumer organization that never pays a nickel in taxes...
-- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"
Monica, I too, miss those easy tax days. It's insane how complicated the stupid forms get. I will admit that without the on-line software, my taxes would not have gotten done for the past several years!
ReplyDeleteEvelyn, I could have written that post myself. I distinctly remember my grandma's handbags, always laden with an inch of spare change at the bottom, and their Kleenex pockets. Today, I love containers and anything that has compartments. I think I picked my house because it's kind of compartment-y.
~Emma