My Taxing Life

I've been quite busy lately and it's literally been because of taxes. Well, that and the fact that I had an amazing weekend which involved fondue, an awesome bar, Korean karaoke, picnics, one awesome stranger, and mint chip ice cream.

Tangent aside, I've learned a lot over the past few weeks about taxes (and life in general). To list a few:

1. Taxes are not easy. They are annoying, but not difficult.
2. Taxes become increasingly difficult with every change of address.
3. Dealing with foreign income is never a pleasant endeavor.
4. Using the calculator on your computer is not as easy as using a real calculator.
5. When picking up your tax forms, grab two of everything you know you need and one of everything you think you don't need.
6. Trying to fill out electronic pdf versions of tax forms in anything other than Adobe Acrobat is futile.
7. "Taxable": Bad. "Credit": Good.
8. The IT-2 form is stupid and exists primarily to aid those who get confused while operating a stapler.
9. If you end up counting the actual number of days you worked in a year on your wall calendar, something has gone terribly awry.
10. Rebates make the hair-pulling worthwhile.

Today I mailed my completed taxes in, and I am actually looking forward to the next go round. Next year it will be a lot easier since I will have only resided in one spot and earned income from one company. Like many things, I think the fear of the unknown makes the first tax season the scariest/most stressful/most unpleasant. I'm guessing it only gets better, but I'll let you know for sure next year.