taxed and feathered

taxes. do you have yours in the mail? or will be you be one of those rushing to the post office tomorrow? i almost was. i mailed mine monday. which is the latest i've ever sent mine in. but you know? i just kind of put it off because filling out forms that i don't really understand is something i hate. a lot. i don't really even mind having to pay money when i have to as much as i just hate filling out these forms. i hate that i don't know why i'm entering the numbers from box 2 into a line for what looks to me like a fairly arbitrary reason. i hate that you should staple somethings but you must paperclip others. do they have a department of staples and paperclips there at the irs or what? anyway, the whole thing just makes me crazy. so now that i don't have to have them done for the fafsas for the kids anymore, i procrastinate.

this year i am paying 41 dollars to the federal government but getting back 46 dollars from the state. that is if i've stapled and paperclipped correctly. i am up five bucks. yay. me.

one year i did my taxes online. which appealed to me but the following year things were a bit more complicated and i had to seek help because i couldn't even figure out how to answer the fairly simple turbo tax questios. and since then, i've had help. i will say however, that i do think that if i absolutely had to, i could do them myself again now. but i choose not to. i'd rather have someone else do them and spend half my time complaining to them how stupid i think the process is.

why can't they say, "if you make x, you pay y% of your income each year. and if you havne't paid it throughout the year, pay it now." seems to me that would be easy. you'd know ahead of time what you had to pay. and that's be it.

why make it any harder than that? i know people want deductions for their kids but you know what? i look at it this way, if you have kids, that's your choice. donn't like how much they cost, don't have them. or have less of them. and then there are mortgage exemptions. what the heck are they about? you get money back because you bought a house? why? i don't get it.

anyway, i just hate the stupid forms and processes. i really don't at all mind supporting our schools (so long as i'm not supporting private or charter schools) or the fire department or the police department. i wouldn't mind supporting libraries or the post office with my taxes. i like paying for city parks and the people who fix the potholes. i'm ok with all of that. i'm even ok with being taxed for water and electricity services. just stop with the stupid stupid forms and exemptions and such.

so i'm relieved. the misery of taxes for this year is over. i now feel light as a feather. until next year.