September is Taxing

I'm celebrating this morning. Why? Because I've finally completed my 2008 personal and corporate tax returns. Yaayyyyy!!!!!

Honesty, here it is September 2009 and for the past 3 days, I've been fumbling through medical receipts and personal expense forms, that are dated well over a year ago. Is that not insane?

When I posted a comment about this on my face book page, I received several responses. The comments ranged anywhere from "I haven't completed my taxes either!" to "Are you serious? Oh my goodness!"

I'm sure you're wondering why I've waited so long. Well, it's because I loath doing my taxes each year. I could of chosen the word hate to describe how I feel but loath sounds so much more intense. Yes, I loath doing my taxes.

Gathering all that information and putting it into the computer is so tedious and incredibly time consuming. Each year I procrastinate and then find myself in crisis mode trying to get everything finished before the dead line. I absolutely dread it. In fact, I'd go as far to say that I'd rather have a root canal done than file my taxes. Now, that is pretty bad!

I was on the phone yesterday with my C.P.A.. She asked why I didn't just put all of my tax information into a simple excel spread sheet. She told me that the majority of her clients submit their taxes that way and it's completely acceptable. It would take a lot less time and would be so much easier.

I explained to my C.P.A. that I have a Type A personality and everything has to be done just so. Putting my tax figures into my fancy accounting software package and printing out all those nice clean impressive reports looks so much better. It actually makes me even feel better. Weird, huh? Yes, I know.

O.k., I have issues, but you probably know this already. Really, who cares about how the information looks on a sheet of paper. Just as long as the information is correct. That's what matters. Well, I tell myself this but that's not what I end up doing. If you're a Type A personality person, I know you're nodding your head up and down right now and saying "yes, yes, yes!"

Plus, I think it's sort of a generational curse. I can remember going with my dad to drop off his personal tax return when I was a little girl. He also would wait until the very last day to file his return. I remember him driving us to the city and going to the main post office, just to make sure his return would be postmarked correctly. I was around 9 years old, it was dark outside, and I was in my pajamas. He really did wait until the last minute to file his return! He also has one of those Type A personalities. See, I told you it was generations.

The good news is that I've already begun compiling my tax information for 2009 and even started putting some entries into my fancy accounting software package. Obviously, I haven't dealt with my Type A personality issues and still love seeing all my tax figures printed out on those fancy reports.

My goal is to have my 2009 tax returns completed and ready for my C.P.A. by the end February 2010.

We shall see :)