Once Again--a Taxing Time

And here we are again: Taxing Time.

I dread it. Not because of the $$ I must pay (to our accountant [I'm too math-dumb to do it myself], to the various levels of government) but because of all the time it takes just to prepare to meet with our accountant.

Which will happen this week on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

By working on this blog post, I'm already delaying what I know I must do. (I've gotten even better at this than I was as a dilatory schoolboy.)

I'm actually pretty good about keeping receipts organized, etc. I have a sort of accordion file box in which I keep things sorted by date and category. It looks like the pic below--but ours is black (appropriate: It matches my mood).

But each year around this time I have to go through that box, put things in envelopes and file folders, separate out the W-2s and 1099s and whatever.

Oh, and then I print out a tax report using Quicken, the home-finance program I've been using since the late 1990s. It actually saves me lots of hassle. Though never enough to make me smile--not during Tax Time.

Our mom used to do our family taxes--and she was "math-smart" enough to do it all. She would close the door to their bedroom/study, and pity the fool who would open that door on Tax-Prep Day. Even Dad knew better.

We tiptoed around the house, went out with Dad for supper (the A&W in nearby Ravenna, Ohio, was a favorite), and generally did all we could to avoid the Wrath of Mom. Which rivaled, I later learned via a film, the Wrath of Khan.

I'm much more public about it, here at home. I do the prep right on the dining room table, right where Joyce can see me, can commiserate and thank me every time she passes by--though I do think she doesn't come downstairs as often on Tax-Prep Day. Wonder why? (Not that I'm a needy guy, mind you.)

Anyway, it will all be over by late Thursday afternoon--and then I will wait for the call from our accountant's office, the call that says we need to come in and sign things. Or--worse--the one that says we need to come in and sign things--and bring our checkbook.