How is a mugger different from an IRS agent? Both take your money, but the mugger doesn’t make you fill out forms.
It is April 18, 2011, tax forms must be filed no later than today. Of course, it is easy to get a six month extension. Come October 17, 2011, there will be a line of taxpayers at the post office filing for an additional extension.
Actually not. Not in the age of e-filing. That’s a shame. Back in the mid-70s I was a clerk at the U.S. Post Office in Iowa City, working the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift (ugh!). One year I was sent outside to empty the mail box at 11:59 p.m. There were six cars backed up. I had instructions to accept mail from anyone in line when the clock struck midnight. I miss those days.
Tax is a day of accountability, but not accounting. I’ve always viewed taxes as the practice of law, not the practice of accounting.
I haven’t seen many good cartoons this year, so I’m going to recycle a classic.
And now, for a really clever cartoon about the complicated tax code.