IT'S TAX TIME. WHOOPIE!

With being close to the middle of April, that means the deadline to file our non-constitutional tax forms are to filed.  I got mine (ours) submitted about a month ago.  It's a task I despise with all my being.  The Government (both state AND federal) take money from me (us) at some rate determined by knuckleheaded politicians to be "fair".  Then, after a calendar year passes, we are required by a non-constitutional "law," under penalty of fine and/or imprisonment for not complying, to confirm our incomes and the amount of taxes they have taken from us, on forms these same dolts have written and approved.  While doing so, we are to follow the unintelligible instructions again these same ignorami have written and approved, we are to determine whether certain deductions, exclusions, exceptions, etc. are to be applied to our being allowed to claim as valid.

Well, after a couple of hours of this paper juggling and chart surfing, I give up.  Don't misunderstand, I complete the forms, I merely submit them to the best of my ability.  I found last year that I made an error on one form and it was corrected for me, free of charge.  So, this year, with great confidence, I submitted my forms assuming errors were made as I had no confidence in my ability to interpret the instructions.  I noticed, too, that if I asked the IRS to complete my forms, they would gladly comply - for a fee of $1,000.00!   A loophole I discovered all on my own.  I saved myself about $75.00 or so in fees to TurboTax, H & R Block, etc.

This gets me to where I began.  Having already received our state tax refund, corrected to $510.00 in our favor, we decided to check on the progress of our federal return.  The IRS web site is very easy to use and very exact.  It turns out, as expected, that I made an error on those as well, not in our favor, but, still a refund nonetheless.  This was the surprise.  Not that I made the error, but that we actually receive the refund.

This, again gets me to where I began.  After all this riggamaroll, taking money from us, making us fill out forms, worrying if we owe MORE money, etc.,  they (the governments) took too much from us.  They got to use this extra money, for free.   I am just to be satisfied with the fact that I am receiving the overage as a refund.  Fine, but next year I have to claim this as INCOME!  The ultimate insult.  I long for the flat tax.