I am writing checks for my own stack of tax payments. Perhaps you aren’t the procrastinator I am (but if you are, cheers!).
I also helped my daughter file her very first return this year. I explained all the parts - familiarizing her with all the pages, the lingo, and what she was paying for...
I am writing this for you - for her - ( for me….)
Taxes trigger “Loss Aversion Bias”. It is painful. We feel something is being taken from us. (and arguably, something is).
There are two sides to everything, though - nothing is either good or bad. It is always degrees of both.
(I know….but bear with me).
So let’s reframe taxes (and at least for this exercise, sidestep the current state of our country, it’s priorities, and the disparity in too many line items).
Because: Libraries. National Parks. (Mostly) Functional roads and bridges. Social Security. Education. Medicare…
You can probably draw a short line between any of the above and your own life - these are the more obvious ones that we benefit from. (again, not saying that they are perfect… so…#sheshouldrun)
If you have ever traveled through a country whose main roads have potholes every few feet, you may have some appreciation for how much easier our lives are - and how much we may take for granted.
Your taxes help make these things possible - for you, and for our fellow citizens. If we weren’t contributing, who, exactly would be paying for these? Who would we WANT paying for these? I would rather I be a stakeholder in our democracy, because it does give us some power.
Privilege is tied to responsibility…and, sometimes that looks like paying taxes for the Collective.
So - see if you can find one or two things to be grateful for when you write your checks. Pretend 100% of it is going in that direction. Energetically you shift the energy you send it with. Maybe that does something to shift the political energy, maybe it doesn’t. But it will make your experience more pleasant, I promise.
If you are making promises to yourself that you “will never be in this situation again!” (dreading tax time, feeling disorganized, overwhelmed, head in the sand, shameful, or any other negative feelings about money) - Please reach out for support.
And with that, I am sending my own stack of envelopes to the collective community that we still are...
P.S. my FAVORITE app for guesstimating tax liability throughout the year is: TaxSlayer - free to download and check in on quarterly to avoid surprises
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