ellenkushner: (Simon van Alphen by Nicolaes Maes)
ellenkushner ([personal profile] ellenkushner) wrote2009-04-15 10:26 am
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Fear of Taxes? You're not alone!

I used to be this person:

It afflicts normal-looking people who function well in other facets of their lives. The symptoms include failing to file tax returns for years on end and squirreling away unopened letters that carry the return address of the Internal Revenue Service. Take a taxpayer (using the word loosely) whom we’ll call Mr. V. . . . . (NYTimes, 4/12/09)

In fear of penalties, I would send a ridiculous check to the IRS every year, hoping to have heard the last of it. But those scary letters kept coming (and remaining unopened) . . . . Eventually, I put every piece of paper I had in a big box, and took it to a woman in Boston who did a lot of taxes for artists, especially members of the Boston Ballet. "You can't imagine," she said. "They tour, they stuff things in envelopes, they lose them.... You're not so bad."

I've been a reformed character ever since.

If you've gotten your taxes in already, Yay, you! If you're working on it til midnight tonight, good luck, good coffee, and don't forget the chocolate!

[identity profile] casacorona.livejournal.com 2009-04-15 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Ours are done and refunds spent. We discovered some years ago that Turbo-Tax feels like a computer game, so we play it as soon as we have all the necessary paper in hand.

[identity profile] mouseworks.livejournal.com 2009-04-15 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Mum, Turbo-Tax, yes. I wouldn't do taxes for years if I didn't have Turbo-Tax.