Death By Taxes

It’s that time of year again; death by taxes season.

I hear it constantly, and especially since I started working at a Costco warehouse, that the only sure thing about life is death and taxes.

More like death by taxes if you own a small business in Washington State.

You see, Urban Dictionary has plenty of funny words to define the situation, but I like Income Removal Service (I.R.S.) And another one, which your job is enough “to pay the taxes”.

What you probably don’t know is that business taxes are due in January, which is well before the April 15th deadline for individuals. Those are mutually exclusive tasks, too. It’s the main reason why I couldn’t establish a photography business on my own. Then there’s my individual taxes.

I’ve noticed my fellow Americans have two schools of thoughts in their approach to taxes. First one is not wanting to pay every year so they would rather seek a refund from the government every April. The second school of thought is to manage their money carefully so if they end up paying that it’s not as much. I attempted the second school of thought for several years, but I never could quite find that financial balance, and ended up paying quite a bit. Nowadays I elect the first school of thought. Sadly, I usually end up apply the refund to my credit card balance.

Once in awhile, I’ll set aside a few dollars to purchase a “refund tax gift”. It’s laughable what I buy because it’s usually practical instead of frivolous.

So one question I love to ask my fellow Americans is, what do they do with their tax refund check if they get one?