Real Life Adventures by Gary Wise and Lance Aldrich for March 15, 2022

Taxing isn’t it?

Do it fIRSt.

You must report all income, including illegal income. Doesn’t that violate your fifth amendment rights? Just wondering……

So avoid one Inevitable by concentrating on the other?

It’s a PITA. I started using an accountant about 12 years ago when, through a series of corporate acquisitions that I had nothing to do with, I found myself holding stock in a foreign corporation, and paying taxes to another country on the dividends paid for those shares. This brought in all sorts of new Forms and Schedules and Worksheets with an Instruction Book for completing each one. I have no doubt that I am paying less in taxes than I would be if I was still doing them myself. Whether that’s enough to offset what I have to pay the accountant for his services is an open question. But what is the price of the aggravation I’m spared? This is vastly preferable. I have to get him a set of information before the end of February, and then he takes care of it. All I have to do is read the returns, sign them, and either write or cash checks. He does all the electronic filing and record-keeping. He tells me what payments I need to make, when, and to whom for taxes during the year. This works very well for me.

At least you know where you’re going. Not everyone can say that!

Just did ours yesterday, for a change we did them early rather than wait and rush through them 30 days from now.

Instead of being full of porn and dating sites, my Spam folder is now full of funeral homes and retirement benefits…

Once a year, I visit my favorite tax preparer. We catch up on what’s happened over the last year and in about an hour and a half, all done. No pain at all. Worth the fee to not have to deal with all the paperwork.

move to a different country

It takes me a little extra time since I inherited half of a farm from my wife. Before I could just enter the two numbers on the form into the spaces on the internet form and press enter. Now I have to open another window and write ‘ingen verksamhet’ (no business) and a couple of zeroes. So now it takes me about 3 minutes instead of 10 seconds.

She could take care of it herself.

Just think of being cremated…

The IRS can tell when I owe vs when they owe me. When they owe me, I file my taxes the second I get my W2 and all other documents (usually by the end of Jan). But if I owe them, I wait until the last possible moment to file.