Taxes

...one of life's only certainties. When I had finished preparing all my financial information for this year's tax appointment I felt fairly optimistic about the outcome. Darrin and I had prepared fairly well for this, making our quarterly estimated payments and socking away the appropriate amount when we sold his route to cover the additional tax burden caused by the capital gain. I thought we'd be in pretty good shape, maybe even get a little something back. Then the appointment came.

During the appointment, I started to really look at everything and realized we made too much money. We didn't have enough expenses to offset the increase in income. Darrin worked really hard to make his route lucrative so that when we went to sell we could ask top dollar, and he did very well at it. And I had received a hefty raise and went back to working full time by March of 2012. 2011 I had still managed to clear more than he did. Last year that was simply not the case. At the end of that appointment, the news came down like a ton of bricks; fourteen thousand dollars owed to the government. How the crap did this happen?

I take full responsibility for not compensating for the increased income and adjusting our estimated payments accordingly. But that only accounts for six thousand of the discrepancy. Where did that other eight grand come from? Well let me tell you, it came from self-employment tax. When you are employed by someone else, they are required by law to pay half of your social security and medicare taxes. When you are self-employed, you are on the hook for the full fifteen percent (which last year was only thirteen percent. Add that with the lowered income and last year we were golden.) What the crap! When I was sitting in my accountant's office deciding what to contribute to 2012's estimated payments I distinctly remember nothing being said about self-employment taxes. Isn't that part of a tax professional's job, to help prepare you so at the end of the year you aren't up a creek?

I was so furious I called my sister, who immediately insisted I sue my accountant for their oversight. That simply is not a possibility, I told her. Why should I sue someone to recover eight thousand dollars when it will probably cost them more like fifteen thousand after they pay their errors and omissions  insurance deductible and court costs. Not to mention, I will still be out legal fees if I pursue it. And we live in a small town. Do I really want to be known as the person that trampled all over a small business owner? I'm not sure they could survive a fifteen thousand dollar judgment. I know I couldn't.

So I started digging. Every receipt from 2012 was scrutinized. Every penny was categorized and accounted for. I hadn't remembered you could deduct state sales tax from your return. And every single effort that was made to aid in Sammy's therapy was deductible (as a medical expense) including therapy materials I had purchased and mileage to and from Dr. visits and therapy appointments. And every penny we spent on Darrin's clothing were now becoming uniform expenses. And anytime there was a duplicate gas receipt for any given week that went on the expense form too. I never have to fill up with gas twice a week so they must have been Darrin's receipts we overlooked the first time around. A little gray, I know, but I don't have fourteen grand laying around.

It took me two solid weeks of working every evening after Darrin took Sammy to bed. I looked at every line of every transaction on every receipt in that stupid little shoe box. And when it was all said and done, all I had was a single sheet of paper printed out with six categories and six figures on it. Wow, talk about anti-climatic. But I was ready. I had done ALL that I could, and now it was time for the second appointment. After twenty minutes of entering and checking, looking and rechecking, we came up with a new number. Ninety-eight hundred dollars. I could live with ninety-eight hundred. Ninety-eight hundred is worlds away from fourteen thousand.

So all my hard work paid off, literally, with over four thousand dollars in savings. I was a little peeved that Darrin didn't have to contribute much to this small victory, but the truth of the matter is I wouldn't have allowed his help. I am too much of a control freak, and I wanted to milk our expenses for every penny of tax saving I could find.

This entire story is leading to an epiphany I have finally come to realize. I'm not sure I can call it an epiphany actually because it took me a few weeks of internal narrative and considerable self-conflict to come to it. I used to consider myself leaning toward the liberal view in my thinking, at least as far as social programs are concerned. I figured I paid my share and that should help out people less fortunate than I. This year, I can't help the feelings of rage that boil up within me every time I see a cart at our big box store going down the aisle with a nice 60" television in it. Never mind that the children accompanying that cart weren't in clothes that fit and didn't have decent shoes on their feet. I have always tried not to judge others by their financial decisions. I've made some pretty stupid choices in my day, after all. But I don't see why we worked so hard to make money this year just to end up turning it all over to the government so they could redistribute the fruits of our labor. Giving it to the ones who won't work but will take every penny that they can from the system because, by God, they are entitled to it. I don't have an answer for the state of our great nation, but I can tell you this, I can no longer stand idly by while my child's future is being mortgaged for people who refuse to stand up and fight for themselves, and from now on my voting is going to have to reflect that.