Tax Time Drudgery

Today I tortured myself doing something I hate. Quite frankly, I despise completing all the rigors of tax preparation. It is not because I lack the skills, but rather because I am not able to look at the end result without anger. I always have the feeling that somehow we should have earned less or perhaps ate less? maybe needed less health care? Whatever we should have done to keep the cost of living our lives to a lower level -- we should have done that. Okay-- I do draw the line at selling extra children, or renting them out as fake families to single adults.

But I hate the work. It takes me about 24 total hours to complete the task with the end result being sent as work to our CPA. He is actually quite good and we have definitely benefited from his services. But he is too far away for my tastes anymore, and we have developed an unresolved game of endless phone tag. We constantly have new questions, new issues and need additional planning since we both do some private practice work, and now we have the farm.

The fact that the farm has become the bane of our profitable existence over the last few years is a source of great discomfort. There is an end in sight, we just aren't that close yet. We keep pouring money into it with the end result being -- no real profit. However, it allows us a few notable deductions. Another aspect of the tax work that takes additional time, additional documentation and even additional planning. We tend to have some issues with successful planning.

The start of doing the taxes is known to the kids as the day Mama starts to yell and cry over paper. They are very happy to be able to go anywhere away from me when I start to lay out the mounds of papers and begin to add things up. Despite the colorful paperclips and happy sounds of shuffling paper, they know that the job does not make me happy.

I am a saver of paper. I have receipts from nearly every purchase ever made for the farm, the house, the cars, the kids, the animals, our small businesses, the thought of any other purchases... I have a pile or envelope full of them. Barry on the other hand, has a greater amount of difficulty locating the receipts. He may have them in his car, his check book, a drawer at work, or even above his car window visor (a pet peeve of mine each time I am hit in the head with the balance of his collection). This obvious difference in our style of organization has caused many long, and loud discussions. Let's just say we have reached an impasse so often, that we avoid each other successfully in order to sidetrack the argument.

To sort and organize our mountains of bills, papers, school information, applications for school, college, and other opportunities, medical receipts and bills, new purchases, maintenance agreements, etc. takes the better part of a weekend and a clean surface that can be held captive for the balance of said weekend. I have tried many tactics to solicit help from Barry and the children to reduce my attention to the task, to no avail. It seems that sorting and stacking bills chronologically, and alphabetically are not the tasks that draw their highest level interest. I was so very shocked to realize that no one else in our family wanted to spend quality time attending to the early phases of the organization process.

Unfortunately for Kyle he won the lottery this year as the number one helper. After he started complaining about needing FAFSA information, he began to throw comments that clarified how he thought I had been remiss in my civic duty and proceeded to declare me un-American because I was dragging my feet at losing a weekend to headaches, endless paper clips and paper piles. I must say that my retort was less than pleasant and I stomped off to be alone. Once I did speak again,I did, however, invite him to the sorting party. Unwillingly he accepted.

Saturday came and he was busy avoiding his senior prom. With no real plans before his carefully scheduled stint at the pizza parlor, he was pacing about the house. I inquired as to his afternoon plans. Stating he had none until work I begged his indulgence to lessen my workload. So he joined me at the 10 foot kitchen table as it became blanketed with bills and receipts. He began to scrutinize each of the piles, and seemed to be adding the dollars spent to provide he and his siblings with a roof over their head, food, and clothing.

with the addition of each Tractor Supply and feed store receipt, the cost of livestock care and animal feed was mounting. This was very distressing to him because it happened despite his efforts to grow feed, or allow the animals to graze. I actually think it was impressed upon him that the money we discuss not being available for other endeavors had been spent on worthwhile things. He could recognize the value of the purchases, despite the frustrations at being told we couldn't afford what he wanted.

He seemed less antagonistic about the length of time it was taking to complete the task once he began to look through the piles to find each bill. He was genuinely caught off guard by the number of places I had stacks of papers. He had no idea that we had that many sources for the deductions or that many bills for different services or goods. As we finished one grocery bag full, he started to leave the table. I went and found another two piles and bags of paperwork that had been stored in my bedroom. Kyles eyes widened, but he said nothing and began to sort though the bag.

He would glance at the amounts and make no comment. I on the other hand, had a remark for nearly every bill. Sometimes I said things matter of fact, sometimes angrily. I hate needing to juggle paying bills, or paying people because of the limits of our salaries. We have worked two jobs at the same time, worked overtime, done without luxuries and everyday conveniences at times in order to pay bills. Kyle knows this and has made sharp remarks about the time we have lost together while working to get things paid off.

We try to keep our children as children as long as possible. We have told them there are restrictions of money, but never attempted to explain in detail why or how they occur. Additionally, we work greater amounts of time or take on extra jobs to offset any shortfall we experience. The children don't have a strong idea about what our finances entail or what we actually make each year. Because of this, Kyle was beginning to see balances and bills he had not acknowledged before. I also believe Kyle was adding up some of the unpaid balances in his head. You could see him attempt to reconcile our perceived wealth against the balances. He was quietly overwhelmed.

I pointed out some of the obvious costs of living. He recognized the electricity and propane, the cable and phones. They seemed to be matter of fact charges to him. Despite his awareness of increases in gas and food costs, he hadn't quite gotten a handle on some of the other bills. The cost of health care staggers even my mind and we have good health coverage.

By the end of the weekend I will have organized and scrutinized our bills, and ultimately the profitability of our last year. Unfortunately, I already know we are operating in the red for now. There are too many things that need repaired to make our small operation profitable yet. There are too many things that we need or too many parallel activities that are costly which will not allow us to move to the next step for our businesses.

I know that next week will begin the tag-team phone calls between the accountant and I. Barry will attempt to answer questions, but really he is not that aware of the process. I am fearful that I may miss some deductions. I am fearful that I have added wrong or misplaced figures. Regardless of the number of years that I have done this, I always seem to find two or three receipts after it is all said and done. This year we just cannot afford any mistakes of any kind.

Like everyone else, I will finish the project and PROMISE faithfully that next year will be different. I will pledge to have all of the things together and ready to file long before December 31. But when the year ends again, we will still be putting away Christmas and waiting on last minute W-2s.

Next year there will be a difference. Kyle will have a different outlook about our income and the taxes. He will have a new idea about the work it takes to keep up the bills, and still be organized for the taxes. Knowing Kyle, he is aware he learned to procrastinate the more complex tasks from me. He also is a perfectionist and hates to feel inadequate when he does things. But he now has the idea of why the task remains undone at times, despite its urgency.

This year Kyle was the one to learn the facts of tax season and what it requires every month to keep it current. He had heard the discussions and argued against the lost time to the family. But now the impact is felt by him directly. I hope this means I have a partner in the process. Like I said, I hate doing the taxes.