I hate taxes.
Sorry, that's not quite true. I don't mind paying taxes - I hate preparing taxes!
Many Canadians and our American cousins have got this idea in their head that taxes are a bad thing.
"Why can't I keep more of my money?" they say. To which I answer, "its not your money to begin with. Its everyone's money that everyone benefits from."
"Well then, I want more of everyone's money for me... AND I'd like the government to spend more money on [insert your favorite publicly funded thing here]" To which I respond, "you're a selfish moron."
No, I'm quite alright with putting in my fair share for things like healthcare, education, roads, environmental protection, courts and a million other things that we take for granted that government and public servants provide for us. As far as I am concerned what I earn is the money I deposit into savings AFTER taxes have been deducted. For me the part on a paystub that says "taxes" should be renamed "what you have contributed to the common good."
But, what I really dislike is actually having to prepare my taxes. You know... find all of my receipts - find all of my T1-T9999 forms - find all of my statements - find all of my financial dealings - add them up and fill out form after form after form and click send. Yup - it actually makes me sick to think about it. Classic procrastination takes over... I work myself up to the point where the task seems so overwhelming that I don't ever want to start because I feel that I am doomed and it will take far more effort than I am willing to put forth.
So I put it off. And put it off. And put it off some more until finally - its the last week of April and there is no more putting it off. I have to do it. No matter how sick the thought of it makes me - I am going to have to get it done.
But not before one more blog post on the topic - so that I can put it off for an extra ten minutes.
andre
Posted by andre at April 25, 2005 10:24 PMme too.
wouldn't it be cool if all electronic (debit/credit) transactions could optionally be tied into the tax system, so that if you bought everything with cards and PINs, then it was all auto-completed for you.
that'd be hot.
and do-able.