Tax Day

Last week at our party, people were talking about doing their taxes. Alas, we could not participate in the conversation, because for the first time ever we did our taxes early. Our accountant was shocked to hear our voices before April; to hear them in January almost gave him a heart attack until we explained that we had some forms to fill out that required 2004 returns, hence we were motivated by necessity, not fundamental character transformation.

Yes, we have an accountant. For several years, S owned bits and pieces of restaurants, and taxes got complicated, very complicated, while an accountant was easy, very easy. The restaurant complications went away, but the easy accountant remained. Once a year I open up the file labeled taxes, I sort the documents in the file into piles of W-2s, 1099s, childcare receipts, charitable contribution receipts, and the occasional K-something-or-other, and I hand the piles over to the accountant. A week or so later, he comes by, we sign the returns, we sign his check, and that’s it. I consider it money well spent, especially because I’m sure he saves us more than we pay him (remember, we’re talking Red State Capital City Suburb: accountants are cheap).

But our friends at the party, they were discussing deductions and schedules I’ve never heard of. Amortizing and depreciating and all sorts of maneuvers that appeared to cost them lots of time and save them lots of money. For a moment I felt like a total tax loser, and a lazy tax loser to boot.

Then I remembered how I feel about taxes: I like taxes. Really, I do. I like roads and schools and parks and V.A. hospitals and Meals on Wheels and libraries and student loans and aid to countries smacked by tsunamis. I’m not so crazy about military planes that can’t fly and invasions of countries that don’t have weapons of mass destruction (actually, most invasions), but I’d rather address those issues by changing the government than by cutting taxes. In Red State Capital City Suburb, there are lots of voters who vote against every tax levy on principle, so I try to vote for every tax levy on principle (we’re talking levies for schools, the fire department, roads, you know, all that frivolous stuff they want to spend our hard-earned money on).

S and I are lucky. We have enough money for everything we need and a lot of what we want. If we were really stretched, I might feel differently. Then again, if we were really stretched, we would pay a lot less taxes, and we would probably have even more need of the kinds of things that taxes fund. So, actually, I’m ok with not taking advantage of every opportunity to reduce my tax bill. Because, like I said, I like taxes.