Ten Things I'd Rather Be Doing Than My Taxes in July

To keep on the topic of weirdness that I have been on lately ... I have a confession to make. When I was a little younger I LOVED to fill out my tax forms. That's right ... LOVED with all caps (that's some serious love!). It was just so orderly and neat. I could pull together my forms from my employer and my bank and pump out a completed return in less than half an hour. That was when it was just me ... easy peasy. It got a bit more complicated when Herman entered the picture -- maybe tacking on an extra fifteen minutes to my prep time. But even as we welcomed child (deduction in IRS talk) after child, buying a home, and entering the full time work force after college, our taxes were not not terribly hard to do. I barely had to read the directions, and I felt confident that I would have an accurate and legal form to turn into the government. 

Things were pretty simple for us while Herman worked for the school district. Every document we needed was neatly put together for us at the very beginning of the year, and I was always able to get our taxes done by the first week in February, excited to receive a refund check that would purchase some necessary item we were waiting to have enough money to buy. But by the turn of the century (that phrase sure made it sound like it was ages ago) the beginning of the end of my smiling tax preparation days had arrived. We became landlords with the purchase of a triplex at that time. With that came lots of expenses, maintenance fees, utility fees, rents received, lots of paperwork. And with the purchase of that property things got a bit more complicated. I was unable to figure things out on my own, but with the help of TurboTax I was able to answer the questions that let the program generate the tax form for me. A little more time consuming and confusing ... but manageable.

Oh for the return of those days ...

Things very quickly moved to the ridiculously confusing stage when it came to tax preparation. We continued to buy properties right and left, soon starting a company to put these properties in so that we could separate the property management from our personal stuff. I opened up TurboTax to do my taxes one year and realized that our tax picture was so complicated that I couldn't even understand the questions that TurboTax was asking me. We knew that we were going to have to go to an accountant. Luckily we found a very nice and good one who helped us finish our taxes. What seemed crazily daunting to me was a breeze for him. I think he was grateful for the chance to do something so simple in comparison of his normal tax business.

So things should be smoother now, right? Not really.

The Blau business picture got more and more complicated as Herman left the school district to start up a company with his friend Mark. And then they formed another company. And another company. And soon we formed a company on our own. And another company. And all along the way our investment company, Symphonic Investments, continued to buy more and more houses. Things were AMAZINGLY complex. I could barely wrap my head around our tax life. I was totally convinced that someday we would be audited because I had missed some crucial piece of information needed for taxes.

This was the end of our days as tax filers by April 15th. No. Every year we had to file an extension in order to have until October to get our stuff filed. Even with the extension we were fighting to get the stuff ready by the later due date. It wasn't just a matter of our accountant figuring out how to file everything. I had to have the stuff to give him so that he knew what to deduct and add. It was maddening. I consider myself to be a relatively good file keeper and organizer when it comes to documents and receipts, but I would get so incredibly flustered trying to gather things into a decipherable pile of info. There is nothing, NOTHING I think in the world that I am asked to do that puts me in a fouler mood than trying to prepare our stuff to take to the accountant. That job that I used to LOVE (all caps) when I was young and stupid? Now I hated it with a passion to rival all passion. It may be the one task on earth that is close to revert to the language of my teen years and curse up a storm. I never quite get to that point ... limiting myself to some well timed grunts and urgs.

Taxes make the normal relaxed, laid back, and happy me become ...

Irritable.

Anxious.

And a bit gollum-y by the end of the process.

So today it is July 10th, the perfect day to hand in my tax stuff to the accountant, right? I feel bad that I am actually really proud of myself for getting the stuff turned in before the month of October. But even though I went to our accountant with a mountain of info I still left with a pile of accountant homework to do. There are still several items I need to gather. So all is not done. I have a few things left to do before tax year 2011 can belong to the history books for Team Blau. Urg!

But for now I've had enough taxes for the day/week/month. Okay. I'll finish up tomorrow. Maybe. 

Until then, here are ten things I'd rather be doing than my taxes in July:

Finally Scrapbook Our China Trip.

Family Float Trip.

Bake Some Bread.

Watch Pride and Prejudice
for the 10,000 time.

Sing the entire score of
Les Miserables ... all parts.

Get a Pedicure.

Read a Book.

Write a Book.

Family Dance-a-Thon.
And yes ... we really look like this when we dance! 

Eat Lemons.

Oh how I hate gathering my tax docs! But at least I can say that today I am one step closer to being done. And here's to Tax Year 2012! I hoping that I can be so super organized that we'll be able to get this nasty process done in the first quarter of the year, giving me time to enjoy the rest of my year in peace.

And just for Spencer ... a little Beatles. Karaoke!