Bright Ideas

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote his famous quote, saying the only things true in life were death and taxes. If you were alive on Monday, April 15, 2019, your taxes were due. When we lived in Billings, I did our taxes one year and decided we were due a refund.

Armed with that information, we attended an art auction. There was a small watercolor painting I wanted: The Flat Cat, by a Miles City artist. I decided on a bidding limit and was out bid. Lucky thing; we actually owed taxes. Brice has done the taxes ever since.

He doesn’t fill in the numbers early; neither did his father. Brice would head for the Post Office in mid afternoon on deadline day; his father was always later traveling in his rapid foot steps to make the mail.

When we owned the Eagle it was more difficult. Brice has it easier now; we both have Social Security, and he has a salary from my Home Care company. That doesn’t mean he finishes earlier, or maybe it does. I think he finished filling out our 1040 in a couple of days over a weekend, and he filed it on Monday, April 8, 2019, just a week before the deadline.

Everything is done on the computer now, and finishes with totals printed. Using a tax program, it already knows the information from the previous year, and can fill in these values where needed.

Despite the President’s tax cut “gift,” we owed some federal tax instead of a getting a refund which we’ve received in past years. We did get a refund from the state, so it all came out in the wash, I guess. If we live another year, our taxes will be due again on April 15, 2020.

I hope all of you finished on time or filed an extension. Until next week . . . .