death & taxes
Ah, yes, it’s that time of year again—time to start working on the dreaded taxes. :green21
So I thought I’d give you a bit of insight into how I get my taxes ready to take to Mr. Tax Man :green3 :
Day 1 – Find receipts. Pile them all together wherever I think I’ll be working. (Hey, it’s something! :green2 )
Day 2 – Go through all receipts to make sure they’re for the proper year. Weed out any for the current year (i.e. next year’s taxes) or that I may have missed from last year. (Take a break. Consider what needs to be done next. :green14 )
Day 3 – Sort receipts into piles for each different category/expense. (Whew. That was a lot for one day. Let’s stop now. :green8 )
Day 4 – Find calculator. Dust it off, since I probably haven’t used it since this time last year. Find paper clips, banker’s clasps, stapler, a pencil, a pen, scrap paper… Begin—slowly—to tally piles of receipts. Add totals to the Giant Overview page I’ll deliver to Mr. Tax Man. (So many numbers. My eyes are crossing & my finger is sore from punching buttons on the calculator. That’s enough for now. :green22 )
Day 5 – Add up more receipts. Add totals to Overview page. (Rest for a minute…preferably with a slice of pizza or some form of chocolate. Drinking will come later.)
Day 6 – Repeat Day 5. :green29
Day 7 – Repeat Days 5 & 6. :green29
Day 8 – I should be done by now, but there are always stragglers. Or things I’ve forgotten until the last minute. Sometimes these last minute items pop into my head while I’m sleeping & I sit bolt upright in bed, then have to get out to make a note so I won’t forget in the morning.
Day 9 – Review overview sheet one more time. Or maybe two more times. Three? Call Mr. Tax Guy, let him know I’m ready & set up an appointment. Continue to wrack my brain, just in case, until I actually go to see him.
Day 10 (or whatever day I sit down with Mr. Tax Man) – The usual. He says, “Did you have a good year?” I make a rude snorting noise & answer various questions while playing with his rescue kitty, Smudge, who’s just adorable & makes the trip moderately less hellish! He—Mr. Tax Man, not Smudge :green28 —looks over everything, gives me the thumbs-up, & tells me he’ll call when everything’s ready. I go home & sit down with that post-taxes drink I’ve been craving since mid-December. :green26
Currently, I’m on about Day 5, which means I’ve got a loooong way to go. :green21
Comments
4 Comments • Comments Feed
Kathleen O says:
I send everything to my tax guy and then he calls me with all kinda of questions. :green8
On March 11, 2014 at 1:05 pm
Ruth says:
:green4 I do my own taxes and e-filed them Sunday. Don’t have a lot of expenses, so they are not hard to do. Good luck when you take them to Mr. Tax Man. :green15
On March 11, 2014 at 8:24 pm