insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Thursday, April 14, 2005 Tax Time Every year, taxes are due on April 15th. Every year my parents go through the same drama, because they wait 'til the last possible second to do their taxes. Not that it's bad to do that, but my mother is fucking insane. That's what makes it bad. My parents itemize their taxes. A lot of people do, since they get more deductions that way versus taking the standard deduction. Now, when you itemize your taxes, you need the original receipts for the things that you are deducting--ie: if you are deducting the interest paid on your mortgage, you need the statement from the mortgage company, etc. Not a difficult concept. However, my mother cannot just locate these receipts. Instead, she keeps all of the receipts for the year. Everything. I mean everything. If she spent $3 cash at McDonalds on February 18th for a Big Mac, she has the receipt for it. She then takes all of these receipts, enters them into a spreadsheet in the computer, cross-references the payment type with the bank/credit card statement, and types it in red if it is tax-deductable. She then takes her spreadsheets in to the tax office for the tax preparer to sort through. Important to note that she does not take the original receipt. She has been told year after year that by tax preparers that she needs the original receipt to take the deduction. She has been told year after year that the tax preparer really doesn't need her spreadsheets, as they take more time to go through them than they are actually worth. It is a worthless waste of time that benefits no one. However, my mother simply will not change her ways. She must do this every single year. And she always swears that she'll start on them earlier, that she'll keep up to it month by month and never does. Each year, she crams all of this into the week before taxes are due. Today, she had an appointment at 6:30 pm to get her taxes done. She didn't make it. She asked them to move her to a later appointment. They moved her to 7 pm. She didn't make it. She's scheduled for 6 pm tomorrow, and I bet she'll fuck that up somehow too. If I worked as a tax preparer and someone pulled that shit on me the day before taxes are due, fuck them. They can pay penalties like everyone else who is late with their taxes. It's not like it's a surprise when your taxes are due. I'm so glad I file early, as soon as I get my W2s and student loan interest statements. I can avoid shit like this from stupid people like my mother. posted by jaime | 5:06 PM 0 comments |
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