Doing Taxes

Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "THEIRS?"

-Author Unknown

This morning, Daddy, Mommy and Madison went to go get our taxes done. We would have done it earlier, but the Easter performance kept us quite busy. It was cute: Madison sat at a nearby desk with headphones in, watching "Snow White," and quite content. So long as she had her Cheez-its!

We got there early enough, so nobody else was there yet. But I imagine it's going to get busy later. Tomorrow is the deadline, April 15th.

This year, we were blessed - but first of all, some tax credit goes to Mommy: she's the one who added up all the donations and gifts, and also informed the lady who helped us with our taxes about the rolling over of the adoption tax credit.

Ahhh, the adoption tax credit! It helps pay back some of the money we invested in adopting Madison. This year we got more of that, plus we now have Madison as a dependent. Bottom line: we're getting some of our money back that we overpaid.

Still, taxes are high. According to the Tax Foundation, we now work for the United States Government until April 9th of each year. Hopefully, that date won't be in April or June when Madison is older. Here's a neat statistic on taxes: we pay more in taxes than we do on food, shelter and clothing combined.

"It's income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta."

-Dave Barry