Tax Man chasing the Easter Bunny

Even though the calendar says it is April 8, I know for sure there are folks out there like myself who are just getting serious about preparing or having our tax returns prepared.

I know this because for 12 years I was a licensed tax preparer. The reason we have waited until now is not that we are procrastinating. It's just one of those tasks that we wait as long as possible to tackle because it has no possibility of a winning outcome.

I should be better at this than I am and practice what I preached during those 12 years, but I am human - most of the time - and I hate preparing to prepare my taxes. That is why I recommended to my clients that they should separate out their receipts, calculate their income and keep good records all year. However, I know only too well that the fading syndrome almost always kicks in about July or August and the rest of the year is a blank fog.

The fading syndrome, for those of you not familiar with the term, occurs as more time passes from an unpleasant experience and the more faded becomes one's anxiety to perform. I find myself very diligent about the whole process in regards to record keeping for the first six months after I file my taxes and then life catches up and off I go to current crisis issues.

One of the primary tasks is to look at all the receipts. I gather them from all my purchases and check to see if they are indeed for the past year, then I separate them into proper categories for legal tax deduction items.

Here's my rub. Why can't businesses use sufficient ink on their cash register receipts so one can read them easily. And for heaven's sake, put the purchase date in the same place on every receipt.

I could have completed my taxes two weeks earlier if I could: a.) find the date of purchase and, b.) read what I had purchased in order to allow proper classification and deduction.

Okay, it's not happening so get started anyway. Go through the receipts the first time and separate them into appropriate piles. At least, do this with those receipts that can be clearly read and understood. Then go through the pile of not-so-easy-to-read receipts and see whether you can place them in an appropriate category.

If you wish to challenge your relationship in regards to how much stress it can handle, ask or accept your partner's assistance in performing this task. I promise you, it will be a stimulating experience and one that you will not want to repeat. They will ask you fifty million times which category each receipt goes in or where is the date on this receipt located.

"Duh, if I knew that I would not have asked or accepted your help in the first place," is what I would like to reply.

By the time you have struggled through this travesty and you are ready to submit your taxes, you will not care whether you even get a refund or if the amount you owe is the least amount possible. You will just want the get the blasted thing done. Let the IRS figure out whether the forms are filled out correctly.

I am an advocate for a flat tax across the board. But no, we must generate tons of paperwork in order to justify giving Uncle Sam as little of our hard-earned money as possible. If we had a flat tax, imagine the relief it would bring to the majority of Americans just like you and me.

Bring on tax reform.