Death and taxes

Death and Taxes May be certain, but we don’t have to die every year.

It is that time of year again.  That miserable experience of trying to pull together your financial information so you can figure out how much you are going to owe Uncle Sam in taxes for last year.  This takes place every year around the middle of January. Christmas, New Year’s and my birthday celebrations are over by now so it’s time to do my least favorite thing. Dang! 

There are people so organize that they even go to the extent of paying their State Taxes BEFORE December 31st of the prior year to get an extra deduction the following year but I didn’t do that because December is such a busy month to worry about doing taxes and for that reason I miss the extra deduction every year. Rats! 

It is now January, my birthday month but also the month I need to look back into where I donated money to charities last year besides paying tithing. This is a good way to support great things happening in the world and save on our taxes at the same time but at times I forget to whom and how I made my donations.  

It is time to look at all the expenses accrued by our rental homes so I need to look at all five properties a month at a time. Our rentals make our taxes a little more complicated. 

Sometimes I wonder if I should look in to putting money into a 529 college savings fund for our grandchildren, or contribute more to our 401k or IRAor is there a way to get credit for all that money we have given away to people or money we lost that will never be repaid but is not reported. You know, when it comes to paying taxes I have mixed emotions:

On the one hand I am incredibly grateful to be a citizen of the United States and I realize that we need to pay taxes to have clean streets, clean water, nice freeways, public schools, etc.  I was born in a third world country and after having spent time living abroad in other countries where they don’t have these luxuries, I decided I should feel grateful to pay taxes to a beautiful country where I will someday call my home once again. 

On the other hand, I hate that I have to pay a portion of my tax dollars that I know are not being well managed nor well spent by the US government.  I cannot stand the waste and overspending on crazy things that our tax dollars go to support every year when that money could be used far more wisely. So yes, it is hard to watch people be so wasteful with your hard- earned money, and that makes paying taxes even more painful to bear.

And going forward into 2019 the reward for being ambitious and doing well financially will be the opportunity to pay even MORE of your hard- earned money to the government. In the United States, you get penalized for being ambitious and middle class. You only get a break if you are very poor or super rich. Argghhh….

 Well I have about a month to go yet on getting my tax records gathered to send to our CPA next month but I will share with you one final quote:

 “Abracadabra, thus we learn the more you create, the less you earn. The less you earn, the more you’re given, the less you lead, the more you’re driven, the more destroyed, the more they feed, the more you pay, the more they need, the more you earn, the less you keep, and now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to take, if the tax-collector hasn’t got it before I wake.”- Ogden Nash

Con amor,

Vero