Taxed Out

Oh I hate doing taxes. For the past few days I've started doing them and then when the anxiety gets to me, I put them aside. But tomorrow I have to go see my accountant so I've run out of procrastinating room. Time to buckle down.

The reason I hate them so much is because of the complexity of the task. Many people are details oriented but I'm not. I am a "big picture person" and proud of it. Trying to figure out what receipts I need to save and having to divide up my expenses between me and Jobina is just intolerable to me. Add in investments, the fact that I'm somewhat self employed and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Yuck.

There are a few interesting things though about going through all your receipts; it's like a detailed journey through your entire last year. The Bible says that where your heart is, there your treasure will be also. Not wanting to take that too out of context, yet it appears that my heart was at Subway and Jobina's was at Starbucks (I was completely shocked by the number of Starbuck's receipts - she must be going there every other day!). Of course I was pleased to see where our charitable giving was as well. Another thing I noticed was how much money was for receipts for "romantic things" like nights out, dinner, movies, flowers, retreats etc. - this is a number I'd like to increase more for next year. Also, apparently I like our vehicle because we put WAY too much money into that (more then half it's value!).

How is your tax prep going? Do you procrastinate like me or have you had it done for months?