I swear childbirth was less painful than tax season is

Ah yes, the beloved tax season is upon us yet again…that season of excitement where you have the thrill of trying to pull together all of your receipts and all of your records for every transaction that took place during the prior year…that feeling of joy as you calculate just how much money is about to be taken out of your account, never to be seen again….and the satisfaction of knowing that when this tax return is completed you get to relive this process all over again in another twelve months.

Let’s get real – There is nothing beloved about tax season. There is nothing thrilling about gathering records, in fact it is flat out terrifying trying to remember every bit of information you need, let alone where you put it! There is no joy that comes from finding out how much money you are going to be paying out, and the thought of having to do it all over again for next year is straight up depressing.

“Death and Taxes May be Certain, But We Don’t Have to Die Every Year.”

Every year that I am gathering all my records for taxes I promise myself that next year I will go into the year organized from day one so that I don’t have to go through the pain at tax time…but then I realize it is already three months into the year and therefore I’ve already gotten off to a failed start and then by the time I am finished with the tax return I am so burned out on it that the last thing I want to go do is organize my records for the current year to date! So I tell myself I will take a short break from it and in a month I will start organizing this year’s records…yep, it’s the lies we tell ourselves to justify putting it off in the moment, only to get to next year’s tax season when we truly wish we hadn’t waited to get it all done…

And so here I am again, in the middle of tax season scrambling to get them done, when I get a call notifying me that this year the returns for some entities are actually due earlier than usual! SAY WHAT!?! So yeah…if you are one of the people who haven’t been able to get ahold of me, or you are still waiting on a response from me, well, now you know why… just rest assured that I would much rather be responding to those requests than dealing with the T-word this week!

I swear childbirth was less painful than tax season is! Maybe we should try breathing exercises to get through this…in through the nose, out through the mouth….

~Amy Rees Anderson

2 Comments

  • Jane says:

    I have far less to organize than you do BUT I keep a folder in my desk drawer for just such information. 🙂 Every piece of paper that is in any way needed for taxes goes into that folder. I still have a few items to gather but it is so much better now that I cram a folder and only have to organize that. I feel your pain. Yes! Next year will be different. 🙂

  • Anonymous says:

    Try the taxbot app. Good business owners tool. Have a great day!

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