Tax Day

It is Tax Day.  Don’t panic, please … Tax Day for me hasn’t been April 15 for many years, since I began having my taxes done by a professional tax accountant.   For most of my years working for Big Industry, I did my own taxes.  I would postpone filing as long as possible, then scramble to collect all the necessary records, re-remember from last what went on what line and hold my breath as I looked up the tax due in the Tax Tables.  That usually happened on April 14.  Since I started my own business and hired an accountant to do the dirty work, Tax Day has been the day of my appointment with Taxman Bob.   I gather up all my paperwork and fill out the tax organizer that Bob provides, them spend about an hour in his office as he looks through what I’ve provide, making sure nothing is missing or incorrect.  He checks to see that I’ve paid my estimated taxes (in the amounts he calculated the previous year to assure there will be no penalty) and makes sure I haven’t neglected any deductions.   Then we’re done.  Within a few days, he will call with the bad news.   It’s always bad news because I pay estimated taxes, so, at a minimum, I will owe the first estimated tax payment minus any return I might have coming.   It can be a substantial chunk of change.

Friday (Musical) Thoughts

It has been a busy week since I wrote Monday (Musical) Smiles on (of course) Monday.  It would be nice to bookend the week with some Friday Smiles but that’s not going to happen, not because there is nothing to smile about but because I don’t feel like smiling.   I am in a mood.  I have worked hard this week on the three jobs that have found their way into my life as I rapidly approach 72.   Each is interesting and challenging and lucrative … but sometimes an (old) man needs a break.  This week, there was no break thanks to my appointment with my tax accountant on Thursday.  This has been a very good year financially, which makes preparing my taxes feel a bit like being led to slaughter.   No matter how many times my friends tell me it’s a Quality Problem, it still fills me with anxiety.   My wife, Muri, tells me I’ve been talking a lot in my sleep, sometimes quite vulgar, which means neither of us wakes up rested.   Bright-eyes and bushy tailed has come in a coffee cup.   Freinds, even those that were nearby, seemed less interesed in me this week and I was certainly less interested in them.

Taxing

When this posts … at least if you are one of the first few readers of the day … I will be in my accountant’s office going through the paperwork he needs to do my 2013 taxes.  Bob has been my accountant since I formed my own consulting company back in 1999 and paying quarterly estimated taxes brought the possibility of the IRS’s punitive underpayment penalties.  Bob is an excellent accountant … he’s saved my britches on several occasions when peculiar situations turned up in my tax records and he’s advised me well on business tax matters … and he’s a very nice man.  None-the-less, the week leading up to my meeting with him is my least favorite times of the year because with my income varying from year to year, I’m always uncertain how much I’ll owe.  No, I won’t be getting any money back … I’m not in the business of giving Uncle Sam no-interest loans.  I pay the amount that Bob tells me will avoid penalties and nothing more.

Monday Smiles – 3/11/2013

The WordPress for Android is one of the most used on my Samsung Galaxy II.  I use it to check on views and comments, as well as see what’s happening on the blogs I follow using the Reader.  One of rhe blogs I follow is the WordPress Daily Prompts, which I note regularly but rarely use.   I am stubbornly committed to come up with my own topics, I’m afraid.   But a prompt for March 10 was this:  Tell us how your week went by putting together a playlist of  five songs that represent it.   Now, that is right up my alley.  So here is my playlist for the Week That Was.   Naturally, if you hang around with old bloggers, you get old music.

Taxation Procrastination

Here it is, March 13 and I’m already posting about taxes.  No, it’s not because I’m unusually prompt in filing … it’s because my appointment with my accountant is unusually early.  Now, I almost always pay my taxes on time … except for once or twice when I’ve been late with my estimated tax payments and incurred small penalties.  Since I’ve had my own business and paid my ransom to the IRS in estimated taxes instead of withholding, I’ve filed as late as possible.   Income tax refunds are a thing of the past, you see.   It always amuses me how excited people get about income tax refunds … if you’d like me to hold some of your money for a year then give it back to you (with no interest) on, say, July 15, I’d be happy to do so.

Monday Smiles – 3/12/2012

It was not a good weekend.   Friday dinner didn’t agree with Muri and I (we thought it should taste good and be easy to digest … dinner said, Taste is enough).  Neither of us slept well.  Saturday was all day Tax Day … getting the paperwork ready for my accountant.  I took a break for Date night but family matters interfered … we made it to the movies but my heart wasn’t in it.   Those of you who have easy kids, enjoy it while it lasts.  I hope it does.  Really.   At eleven pm, Mr.P, my son’s Siamese cat, slipped out through an open garage door.  We live in a neighborhood where coyotes routinely stroll down the street, so having a cat out at night is scary.   When I went to bed at 3 am, he still wasn’t in.   Sunday was another Tax Day.   Just before dinner, a good friend called to tell me his wife had been in hospital with stroke-like symptoms.   She’s home and feeling better but he’s really worried.   Tomorrow, I’ll be attending the funeral of a 43 year old friend who passed away in his sleep of a heart attack, leaving three teenaged sons.   It is not a good Monday for smiles.  This is the best I can do.

Monday Smiles – 5/9/2011

Today is Tax Day, the day I see my accountant to see what additional tariffs my government requires to continue programs I oppose (while threatening to cut back programs I benefit from).  I can’t … or won’t … complain too much.  After all, with a forty-plus year career working in the defense industry, I realize that the government actually paid my salary.   Unfortunately, I didn’t get the ridiculous retirement benefits that most government workers seem to get.  But I can’t … or won’t … complain too much … Muri and I are OK compared to most.   You might wonder if this is a mis-dated post, meant to be published back in early April … or whether I’m delinquent and looking at IRS penalties.  No and no.  When I went to see my accountant in April, a letter on his door explained that he had been taken to the hospital with pneumonia.   He filed extensions for all his clients and now He’s Back … and we must do the dirty deed.  But I can’t … or won’t … complain too much.  OK, maybe I will.

Speaking of Taxes

As I said yesterday, I am in the process of gathering my tax information for an appointment with my accountant on Friday.   No, I didn’t finish yesterday for several reasons.  One reason is that I took time off to post Drafted, a post about posting … every day.   One comment by thesinglecell suggested that it’s important to like what you post, so I should cut myself some slack.   He may be right but I like the discipline of writing every day.   The truth is, when it comes to short essays, I don’t publish it if I don’t like it.   There are, however, degrees of like.  The posts I really like are essays and the posts I like a little are writing exercises, both of which fit within the domain of what keeps Older Eyes ticking.  A second reason for not finishing my taxes is that several online records I needed were not immediately available … I had to request them and wait 24 hours.  Finally, I needed a break and took some time off in the evening.

Taxing, Isn’t It?

Yes, I know taxes aren’t due until tomorrow, and yes, I know some of you are getting money back (you dirty dogs!). Isn’t it interesting that we’ve been trained to get excited when we get some of OUR money back at tax time. I know people who are absolutely offended if they have to pay any taxes at all but most years, I look around at what we have in this country and I can get myself to say, Oh, well, as I drop the envelopes grudgingly into the mailbox on April 15.    This year, not so much.   Besides the financial issues I’m having personally this year, I feel like I’m turning my hard earned cash over to politicians who aren’t listening.    California continues to stagger towards