A Taxing Time

Over the past several weeks, it seems that the subject of taxes has made more headlines than Kim Kardashian’s absurd maternity outfits or the ongoing enlargement of White House Spokesman’s Jay Carney’s nose when asked about the Benghazi debacle.

If it isn’t another numerical treatise on the length and complexity of the current Tax Code (seven times longer than The Bible for those keeping score at home), it’s the recent Senate passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act – which would allow states to collect sales tax from online retailers - or the recent kerfuffle over why the IRS suddenly decided to target organizations affiliating themselves with Tea Party or beliefs in limited government.

But what caught my attention was a recent poll from the Pew Research Center that indicated more taxpayers than you would think actually don’t mind doing their taxes. Since I equate filling out tax forms and researching alphabetic schedules on par with having a sharpened pebble in your shoe on a 10-mile hike, I read with more than a little surprise that about a third of more than 1,000 adults surveyed said they either liked (29 percent) or , now get this…loved (5 percent) doing their taxes.

Last month I filed my daughter’s taxes and got to the mailbox just minutes before the last pickup on April 15. Now she’s a college student with part-time jobs in the retail sector, so admittedly, her return did not rival GE’s in terms of complexity (which I understand runs north of 50,000 pages), but I certainly don’t recall turning cartwheels while completing  her 1040 or even afterwards.

Obviously the anticipation of receiving a refund was one factor as to why some people like doing their taxes, other responses included giving the preparer a sense of control, while others said they were simply good at it. Some even said it was a feeling of obligation to pay taxes or their “fair share.” Hmm. I’ve heard that expression somewhere before.

Obviously these folks will not be targets of the IRS’ recent anti-Tea Party audit parade.

But more in line with normalcy, some 56 percent maintained they disliked doing their taxes – citing the usual suspects – time, complexity, paperwork and the age old-fear of making a mistake.

By the way, my daughter still hasn’t received her refund.

She’s never attended a Tea Party rally but she is a registered Republican. I told her give it another week and then I’ll make some calls to Capitol Hill.