Tax Season is upon us

Ahh the month of February! What a joyus month it is. It's that time of year that employers big and small start sending out the Federal W-2 form so that income taxes can be filed. I think this is one of the most hated times of the year for tax payers and the government and I'll give you my reasons.

First let's take the individuals point of view. First off, all year long Federal, State, and in some instances Local governments have been fleecing the litte guy (you and me) out of our rightful earnings for an entire calendar year. If the company is big enough, they've been paying this for you to the Feds and it appears as three line items on your pay check. When Februrary comes along you finally find out just exactly how much the government has taken away from you in total. For me personally it was quite a large chunk of change and hopefully I'll be able to get some of it back in the form of a nice refund check. For some other unfortunate souls (me last year), they'll discover that they've paid too little and have to fork over a truck load of cash to the Feds. BOOO!! So this all equates to stress. The tax code has tons of loop holes in it that people can exploit, the kick is trying to find them in the encyclopedic tax codes written by our elected officials. That's where ma
ny of us get fleeced again, there is a whole industry dedicated to helping someone do their taxes. Assistance varies from using accountants to computer programs but it still may mean a couple hundred bucks from your pocket.

The government point of view isn't as bad since they're the ones receiving money but its processing the sheer volume of tax filings that has to be daunting. Not only are they processing individual tax returns but also business returns. All of them need to be checked to ensure that everything has been filled out correctly and the proper amount of tax has been paid to Uncle Sam. A great many people also over pay so refunds are in order. That means the great government machine needs to punch out millions of checks potentially to businesses and individuals which eats up.... tax revenue! And then if you're truely bored you can then watch senators and congressmen spend your hard earned money on C-SPAN on little pet projects that don't really mean spit to you or me but makes them look awesome come election time.

So that's it, that is my tax season rant for 2008. I have one set of W-2's from my job. I'm just waiting for another set for me and my wife's then I can begin the stressful process of trying to find out if I should whoop for joy that I'm getting money back or curse the tax gods that I'll have to fork over even more money to the government.