It's Tax Time

It's that time of the year when you have to report your earnings to the government and then cry about how much money you don't get to keep. Even though, it's sad to see how much money you earned that you can't have, it's nice of the government to take it out little by little. I'd cry a lot more if I had to write a big check every year. Actually, I don't cry when I do the taxes, because I didn't have to do them. One bonus about being married is that you can file jointly and, really, it's only practical for one person to do taxes. I'm thankful that I'm not the person elected. Until the 2007 tax season rolled around, I always did my own taxes and I actually kind of liked it. The years 1996 through about 2005 were actually really enjoyable because I just wrote EXEMPT in the box and then waited for all of my sweet little pennies to come back to me.
Unfortunately when you have the fortune of a real salary, you also don't get all of your money back. I'd like to say though, that I feel lucky and grateful that I live in a country with a stable, working government that provides a lot of services for its citizens. I'm also happier that I get to hand over money to a government that I trust a lot more this year than I have in a long time.