Death & Taxes. So I filed my own taxes for the first time ever this year. I mean, I've sent in a return before, but my mom had always filled out the forms for me, and I just put my John Hancock on it. This year was the first time I ever went through all the paperwork myself. And whereas I usually did the 1040EZ (I think), this year I did the real 1040. It wasn't too extraordinarily difficult, but I guess that's cuz I didn't have a whole lot of crazy deductions to claim.
Anyways, I ended up owing Uncle Sam ~$500. >_< And it coulda been worse, I suppose. Claiming relocation expenses kept me from having to pay nearly double that. But MAN, I'll admit, it DOES suck to feel like you've got this wad of hard-earned cash in your pocket, and then the Man comes and yanks a cut out of what you thought was rightfully yours. =/ I mean, it's like all year long, with every paycheck, you've paid the Man his tribute, so you think you're square with him; then at the end of the year, he comes back, saying you owe more... "if you know what's good for ya, you'll PAY!" as he waves his beating stick menacingly, hahaha.
And I dunno, growing up, I'd always been like, "Why does everyone whine so much about paying taxes?? The government does a lot of good things with that tax money." ...yea, well, I guess I've grown more cynical over the years (especially the past year), and I don't really agree with the way a lot of our tax dollars are spent. But I guess you have to take the sweets with the sours. If you want Uncle Sam to replace the space shuttle fleet, you gotta accept that he's also piss away a lot of your tax dollars on frivolous things, like, oh I dunno, a WAR? I feel like I've been on the inside and seen firsthand how the needlessly complex bureaucracy makes for waste & excess; and in the end, a lot of the things promised never come to fruition.
Yea, I've heard that taxes are the leading cause of idealistic liberals starting to sway conservative as they get older. And it's true, I think a little bit of the liberal in me died when I signed that check to Uncle Sam. =(
Anyways, I ended up owing Uncle Sam ~$500. >_< And it coulda been worse, I suppose. Claiming relocation expenses kept me from having to pay nearly double that. But MAN, I'll admit, it DOES suck to feel like you've got this wad of hard-earned cash in your pocket, and then the Man comes and yanks a cut out of what you thought was rightfully yours. =/ I mean, it's like all year long, with every paycheck, you've paid the Man his tribute, so you think you're square with him; then at the end of the year, he comes back, saying you owe more... "if you know what's good for ya, you'll PAY!" as he waves his beating stick menacingly, hahaha.
And I dunno, growing up, I'd always been like, "Why does everyone whine so much about paying taxes?? The government does a lot of good things with that tax money." ...yea, well, I guess I've grown more cynical over the years (especially the past year), and I don't really agree with the way a lot of our tax dollars are spent. But I guess you have to take the sweets with the sours. If you want Uncle Sam to replace the space shuttle fleet, you gotta accept that he's also piss away a lot of your tax dollars on frivolous things, like, oh I dunno, a WAR? I feel like I've been on the inside and seen firsthand how the needlessly complex bureaucracy makes for waste & excess; and in the end, a lot of the things promised never come to fruition.
Yea, I've heard that taxes are the leading cause of idealistic liberals starting to sway conservative as they get older. And it's true, I think a little bit of the liberal in me died when I signed that check to Uncle Sam. =(
posted by Dear Daniel at 11:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home