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Turtle Tales
by Carol Breidenbach
Uncle Sam Seems a Little Benevolent Now
30 April 2002
We all cherish special times in a relationship when the two of you connect in a way that excludes the rest of the world. Filing our income taxes electronically this year was that kind of experience for us.
Amazement fills me at the thought of writing anything positive about filing taxes. Our tax history has been filled with bad dreams. In the early years of our marriage when I was a stay at home mom, I kept meticulous financial records. Lenny's procrastination caused tax filing to be a nightmare. He would put it off and put it off and then finally file an extension at the last minute.
As our children approached college age, this became a source of great concern for me. In order to be able to fill out the ominous College Financial Aid Form the taxes would have to be filed in January. Gradually and very gently, I moved him up a month year by year until we actually filed in January the year our oldest daughter was a senior in high school.
As the children left home, we slipped back to filing at the last minute. However, we never slipped again into filing an extension. The stay at home Mom went back to work and the meticulous financial records became a pile in the bottom of a desk drawer and sometimes under it.
Lenny would ask for the necessary records some time around the first of April. Sheer absolute panic would strike. Can't we just take a good guess at the numbers? We know about how much we give to charity. Please? Finally, because he would refuse to estimate, I would pull an all nighter and find the necessary papers. Each time swearing that next year I would keep perfect records. Usually by this time I was already 3 months behind on the current year.
We invested in some tax filing software this year and decided to file our taxes electronically. We were enticed into this software purchase because of rebates that made it practically free. After reading the complicated instructions and requirements we were tempted to give up. I am sure that was their intention. We did however persist and get our rebates checks for the software.
On Sunday April 14 at 3pm the two of us sat in front of the Computer, financial records and software in hand. We stared at the screen with the same fear and anticipation of children the first day of school. Was this going to be a good or bad experience? What happens if it doesn't work?
I typed and Lenny dictated the numbers as the software walked us through the process. We held our breath each time the next box was clicked. Finally as we clicked the final box the screen announced our successful filing. We hugged the kind of hug that only two people who have survived a traumatic experience can understand.
The stress continued a little until the refund actually appeared in our checking account. Next year, we really are going to keep good records and file early and lose some weight too.
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