The Friday before Tax Day was not good. I spent a large part of the day plugging numbers into Turbo Tax Online. By 6:00 p.m., I had managed to overcome my inclination to disregard the whole thing and escape to Jamaica.
- Lumber Lost
I’ve never been to Jamaica. It would be a blast – for a little while.
I could have used the money that I was going to pour down the bottomless pit (i.e., government) very nicely on my trip to the Caribbean Ocean.
But I thought about my poor family, having to receive post cards from me from afar. And of course, the bottomless pit would not have cared about my little family and would have attached a lien on my home – creating marital disharmony.
So, I filed: federal and two states. I had fought with TurboTax for most of the day as it insisted that I pay a large sum of money to the Feds and lesser amounts to Arkansas and Mississippi.
I insisted that this was not in my family’s best interest and that our children needed that money for things like food, clothing, and continued high-speed Internet service.
TurboTax disagreed and pointed to our taxable income amounts.
“That’s just a suggestion” I insisted. We didn’t really make that amount. At the conclusion of the whole affair, TurboTax won and my family lost – a lot!
As I pondered the coasts of Jamaica and the inequity of our progressive tax system, I drove home. As I approached Highway 98 (which at that point is basically an interstate highway), I saw someone who had a worst day than I.
At least the load his truck was carrying wasn’t something explosive nor did the wood land atop an unsuspecting Toyota Prius.
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