Well, I Did ’Em

The taxes, that is.

They are done. They have been mailed. I even included a check.

And, once again, I make myself my yearly promise that I will start paying my quarterly estimated payments. You know, that thing you ought to do when you're self-employed where you send the IRS money in advance so that when you do your taxes at the end of the year it doesn't hurt so bad?

My clients and coworkers have been laughing at me for the last two weeks. Everyone wants to know why I don't make my quarterlies.

Mostly, I procrastinate. Also, throughout the years I've come to realize that it can be really hard to estimate what I'll owe in any given year. There have been periods where my income fluctuates wildly from one year to another so one year I'll owe a little and the next I'll owe three times more — or three times less. This frustrates me and I just throw up my hands in despair.

I finally came up with the answer that by not making quarterly estimated tax payments it only hurts once a year instead of four times.

So it is that this last weekend I was sitting in front of the computer doing my taxes instead of being outside playing with the dogs. Yes, I do my own taxes. I am also too cheap to invest in Turbo Tax (or any other tax preparation software) every year. I'm also not intimidated by simple math, so I just download the forms and fill them out. Simple enough.

The worst part is that I also wait until the last minute each year to categorize and tally up my receipts. This is excruciatingly time consuming and took longer than necessary since it resulted in both the dogs and the BF continuously coming in to stand next to me and whine because I was paying attention to something other than them.

Well, it's all done. I got all the paperwork filled out and put together and put into envelopes and stamped. Then I proceeded to wait until the 15th to mail them.

What happened to the days when the post offices stayed open late on tax day? I always remember the local news doing stories about the tax deadline and showing the lines at the post offices with postal employees standing outside taking mail directly from drivers in order to get that tax return postmarked by 11:59 p.m.

Not around here. The last call for outgoing mail at the nearest post office was 3 p.m. — which I discovered when I went to drop off my returns at 3:58. So I drove to the next nearest post office, where I arrived at 4:18 p.m., just in time to make the 4:30 deadline.

Well, at least they are mailed. And as soon as I recover from writing that check, I'll start making estimated payments in advance ... and I really mean it this time!