Tax time

I have really bad memories of tax time. From the days when my father started preparing to prepare to "do his taxes". It felt like a huge black cloud settled over him and his house. All the pertinent papers would be pulled out and spread in piles on almost every flat surface in the house. As tax day got closer his mood got darker and I tried to stay away. He always prepared his own return and was meticulous,researching all possible deductions. When he could no longer do his own taxes for some reason it fell to me to prepare his taxes. It is no wonder with these dark memories of the experience, that I hired an accountant to take it over. For years we had hired an accountant to prepare our return for us because of these dark memories.

In truth, I think the gathering of data process is nearly as bad as the actually preparation process now that all these software applications are available. You have to gather all the same data and put them on a form that someone at the accountant's office just inputs into one of these applications. Geez, you can't win for losing. I'm still going with the accountant. It gets rid of some of the angst!