Tax Returns
So I got my W2 forms in the mail this past week and decided to go ahead and bang out my taxes immediately. I’d received the TaxCut software I usually use in the mail (part of their Direct Mail campaign to keep customers) and after researching to make sure I wasn’t going to miss out on too many rebates or special offers, I decided to go ahead and use the mailed CD instead of buying a copy from Staples, or someplace like that. My taxes ain’t complex, so it doesn’t take me long to do (this would seem like a benefit, but just means that I don’t have any good investments) and I banged them out in an hour or less. I’m even getting a decent refund (although I’d prefer not to have given the gub’mint 30% of my income, regardless of the refund amount).
Then it comes time to file. I hate this part. This is where the instant gratification beast takes over and starts beating me about the head and neck. Oh sure, it’s friggin’ $15.95 a pop to file electronically for Federal and State returns; sure that’s $32 dollars of cream from HR Block; but I can get my refund so much quicker if I don’t mail the stupid things. Besides, I’ve got plans for that money (so many plans…do I get a 1911, or new pipes for the bike, or a new leather jacket, or bags for the bike?), so I want it like, I dunno, yesterday. And then I rationalize that I’ll be getting a rebate on the Federal electronic filing fee, so it’s really only $15.95. So then I pull the trigger and file away.
The problem is, I always wake up the morning after filing feeling a bit dirty; a bit like a john who just left his money on H&R Block’s dresser before slinking out of the apartment. It’s such a rip off, this “electronic filing fee”. It’s nothing but profit for H&R Block and other tax prep places. And considering these are the same companies that like to rip people off by pushing “rapid refund” scams that make the mafia’s interest rates look reasonable, it’s hard for me to justify giving them cash. This is the problem with me: I want instant results, but then I feel guilty about it later.
At least there’s the possiblity of free filing for people who make under a certain amount of money. Then the raping of people’s paychecks can be left to the gub’mint instead of a tag-team of gub’mint and big business.
