Finished my taxes this morning. In a rare turn of events I am getting a refund, mostly because I over-estimated the estimated taxes I needed to pay during the year.
I kind of enjoy doing taxes – it is a nice way to summarize finances for the previous year and generally makes me feel organized and accomplished. I don’t even mind the taxes part – paying for our national (and state) government feels like a patriotic duty and I’m glad I can contribute as much as I do. I genuinely like and appreciate many of the services government provides, from freeways to national defense.
I don’t want this to be a political blog, but I do have to say the part I do NOT enjoy is thinking about how my money is spent. Giving money to our current (or recent) “leaders” in congress and the executive branch feels like enabling. Neither party has any interest in fiscal discipline, and constantly increasing the national debt (either by cutting taxes or increasing spending) will eventually result in a global financial meltdown (at worst) or a long period of hamstrung growth (at best). I can’t say what the best way to address this is (don’t take financial policy advice from a programmer) but I can say I don’t really feel like our current elected officials are up to the job. Or the ones before that. Or before that. Or before that. Or…
I like doing taxes too. Not sure what you use but Turbo Tax is kind of fun for me every year, watching the total on the top veer from ‘amount owed’ to ‘refund due’ while I enter items is enjoyable. The bits where they try to sell me lots of services I don’t need, I could do without however.
I do use TurboTax also. For the most part I like it but there are a few things they seem to hide that are not part of the normal “wizard” that I have to dig for.
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