On Fridays after the New Year, a female work associate always asks me my plans for the weekend. Since February, my stock response to her was: “Work on my tax returns.” The poor thing must think that I have no life post-work week!
On Monday last week, she finally heard the much anticipated news from me: “I’m done with my taxes!”
Truth be told, finishing the work on my 2010 income tax returns was a hallelujah moment. Being a perpetual 1040 filer, the IRS has always brought me stress during the first quarter of the year. I don’t mind paying taxes, but it’s the paperwork trail that brings me a ton of pain.
Like everyone else, I’ve often wondered why the U.S. income tax process involves a humongous amount of instruction booklets and tax forms. I’m sure that someone (a many number of people, in fact) got paid putting those booklets and forms together. Good for them! My wish is that someone would come along and make the current process obsolete. Filing income tax returns should be fun for the citizens, not a tedious paperwork process. The government should make it an enjoyable experience to pay up, not an annual excruciating exercise that many folks dread doing.
My personal wish is that the citizens would be able to settle their income taxes through payroll deductions. Period. No more filing before the April 15th or the extended deadline. I know it’s an impossible dream, but if man can go to the moon, nothing’s undoable anymore!
If anyone out there has a bright idea on simplifying our existing tax system, please speak up or take the time to write to your representative. January through April can be better spent enjoying life than spending the time poring over instruction booklets, filling out forms, meeting with H&R Block or investing in TurboTax.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’m already feeling taxed as it is.
