Taxes

Well, I have all the info (well most of it anyway), so I sat down to do my taxes today and see how much the damage was. I made less this year (one less job) and I applied my refunds from last year to this years taxes, so the bill this year seems modest. Of course I have less money overall, but oh well.

My taxes are rather complex and though I am fairly conservative in my approach, I find myself wishing I were more agressive in my deductions. That very nice briefcase (that I never used myself) that I donated to charity was surely worth more than $100. But I just can't imagine that I paid more than $100. I would never spend that kind of money on a briefcase. Of course I did, because I am well aware that briefcases are very expensive, but I just can't fathom it. So I'm only deducting $100. It was a really, really nice briefcase. Oh well.

I am deducting my expenses from Glendale Beautiful. Those are business expenses. If I'm not there to drum up business, then there is no purpose at all. I also deducted the cost of my Christmas Cards. I sent out all my own cards this year to my clients. As I write this I realize that I should probably take half the cost off for friends and family (even though I of course want all my friends and family to call me if they need an attorney, but the folks in Michigan, Indianna, Georgia and Florida probably won't be calling.)

California has a very odd tax system. If you make slightly too much, you pay a lot more. Some years I only pay a couple hundred and other years it is over a thousand. My income does not vary that greatly percentage-wise. This year I will pay in the low hundreds. We are facing billions in deficit and I feel privileged to live in this state, so I'm feeling a little guilty for getting off so cheap. They owe me a big fat refund, so I was thinking about loaning it back to them interest free. Then I prepared my budget for the year and realized how much I could potentially go into the hole every month--never mind. I better finance my own budget deficit before I go trying to help California with their billions.