Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Death & Taxes

It has often been said that there is nothing certain in life but death and taxes. And well, it's mostly true. The vast majority get hit with one or the other every year... some unlucky people get hit with both in the same year. This year is no different for me.

I spend about 6 hours filing my taxes this year. I'm a student on a meger income, so there's no need for a tax preparer, I just usually do them myself. This year, I decided to go completely online for this process, and well, it saved me 2 hours. What really confuses me is the whole:

Write your name in line6c. If your mother's maiden name is the same and your neighbor's third cousin's sister's boyfriend's dog, check the box in line 45938b (this will not affect your taxes). Write your income less $6000.12 in line 132e. If line 12b doesn't match line 173d, then... you're screwed.

I don't mind the tax thing as I know we couldn't function as a society without them, but c'mon! Do the tax forms need to be so complex that a songwriter can't do them? (I know, songwriter... doesn't say much for the math skills, but that's beside the point.)

Doing my taxes online made it simpler and easier. I know death and taxes are the certainties in life... I just can't decide which I'd like better.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

sucks if you die while doing taxes, would you have to pay taxes...all i know is that whoever inherits whatever you leave has to pay taxes on that :-P why did they have to pay taxes on it if taxes have already been payed on it!!!!! this isnt vegas!!!

Anonymous said...

I believe that taxes are, in fact, homosexual.

cruz-control said...

Homosexual? In the sense that they like other taxes of the same gender?

Anonymous said...

actually... yes. That was exactly my point.

Anonymous said...

theres always one good thing to taxes...u may get money back, which is kinda cool its like money that you find in the couch, u thought u lost it forever...then u find it!!! of course in order for that to work u must be really lucky :-P