Taxes always on my mind

Tom Purcell on Apr 19, 2022

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes.”

That quote is often attributed to Ben Franklin or Mark Twain, but whoever said it, no truer words have ever been spoken.

I filed my annual income tax extension on April 18, 2022, the last day of this year I was able to do so.

Every year, I vow to get my tax receipts in order and to my CPA by early March, and every year I don’t and must file an extension.

To make the task easier for me, my CPA set up a Quicken account that allows me to record in real time every check that comes in and every expense that goes out.

But I don’t use that convenient tool as I should, either — and I never know for certain how much money I’ll receive back from the IRS or have to pay until October, when my 2021 return is finally due.

Taxes are on my mind all year long, regrettably, and it seems in one form or another they are always due.

I can always sense when it’s tax-paying time: It’s when I start to save a little money and enjoy, wrongly, the exhilarating sense that I am finally getting financially ahead.

In the autumn I have to pay taxes on my house and the handful of rental properties I’ve been able to scrape together — and the taxes are sizable.

Then when spring rolls around I have to write a massive check to the IRS and be reminded that my silent business partner, the federal government, always gets its cut of my income.

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