I Hate Taxes

I recently asked readers to tell me why you hate taxes.

Now that the tax deadline is almost here, if your taxes aren’t done and you are pulling your hair out, you can probably relate to some of the “I hate tax” reasons!

For the rest of you, who have already filed, I’m sure you’re excited tax season is almost over and we’ll put aside all the tax talk at My Dollar Plan and get back to regular money talk!

Why I Hate Taxes…

• Finding everything you need. I never seem to be able to find the right pieces of paper to do the job, even if I think I have saved them — diligently — all year in one or two folders. – Sharon
• Leaving money on the table. I don’t mind doing taxes per se but what I don’t like about them is that its not always straight- forward enough and if you are not well informed you will leave money on the table. – Bee Kay
• How complicated they are. Trying to make sure that I found all the deductions especially since I have 2 in college. Then of course realizing at the end how much money I turn over to Washington DC and NY to waste. – Sue
• Making judgement calls. How complicated they are. I always end up making a judgement call on at least a couple entries. That’s not a good feeling. – Jake
• Expensive tax preparers. I hate that low income filers are gouged by professional preparers to file their returns. – Bill
• Filing in multiple states. I hate trying to figure out what needs to be split between states. This year we (husband and I) have had a lot of medical expenses and we hope to claim them…. Ugggh… taxes!!! – Meg
• AMT. What I hate most about taxes is AMT. And knowing how much of my money is going to finance fraud and wasteful programs. – Noelle
• Telling the IRS what they already know. Here’s one: The IRS already knows where some of my revenue comes from like paycheck, bank dividends etc., why make me enter it again? – Moneycone
• Last minute tax rule changes. That they change the rules at the 12th hour and I always have to wait till April to file. I just want them out of my life. – Megan
• The lack of a central clearinghouse. Manually entering crap. Seriously, since things (W2s, I9s, etc) are transmitted to the IRS, why is there no central clearing house where a taxpayer can import ALL his / her data into things like HRBlock.com and then classify things from there? – jdmitch
• What gets taxed and where it goes. The fact that what gets taxed come and go based on the whim of politicians, and the fact that my taxes get used to bail out companies that do not deserve it. – lwl12
• Maintaining paperwork. Only the paperwork that is involved. it is just too much to do and maintain…and I always wander what happens to the paper reduction act. Love the refunds! – Joyce
• The need for software. It’s too complicated to work out, with so many deductions to workout that you need software. – unimax
• Lack of free efiling for everyone. I hate that there is no way for ALL taxpayers to e-file for free when I’m saving the IRS a bunch of paperwork handling by doing so. I know the major tax prep software makers increased their price in the past years to include the e-filing fee as standard (and “complimentary”), but it’s the principle of the thing. – Keenie Beanie
• 1099s. What I truly dislike is that I do lots of consulting work as an educator and have dozens of 1099’s and related expenses. Makes the federal taxes extra long (not hard, just long) to do. – CarolH
• Getting tax related documents on time. I hate that I don’t have all my paper work when my appointment comes. – Campbell, Kathy
• Confusing to file. I dislike them so much because they are so confusing to file, and it leads me to think that the gov’t is trying to pull one over on me! – Chris Darland
• Finding receipts. How many receipts, from how many places must be found before the self-employed, right-brained artist can figure out his situation and we can work on the taxes. It seems as if there ought to be a faster system to all of this? Never mind the political problems of taxes, we just hope the marriage survives another go around. – Martha
• Adoption credit delays. I hate that I have to wait so long to claim the adoption credit. They should allow for an advance on it so I’m not out all the cash for a year. – Tim
• Collecting paperwork. I dislike the paperwork that I need to collect before filing a tax return. – Wealthy Immigrant
• The complexity. I don’t like the complexity of preparing taxes. – Steve
• People paying different percentages of tax. When they say “pay your fair share” – it’s not the same (%) for everyone, regardless of what you make. (Yes, I’m in favor of a flat tax or fair tax). Why can’t Joe who makes $50K a year pay the same percentage as Jill who makes $150K a year? Why is that so complicated? – Derek Epperson
• No hate, just not a fan. Hate is a strong word. I am not a big fan of the filing process!! – Bill Kaiser
• Manual effort. Is there anything to like about taxes (other than receiving a refund and not having to pay)? What I hate most about taxes (and I am an accountant) is the manual effort required to file multiple-state return forms & sub-schedules…especially when you end up owing one state and getting a refund from another. – Patrick
• What they amount to, and what they enable. Taxes have become a way for the government to redistribute wealth (via various credits), and to fund so many bloated government agencies, programs and bailouts (GM – Government Motors). For some reason the power base in Washington believes that they know better than you how YOUR money should be allocated and spent. –Kevin
• Paying for the privilege of paying taxes. I must pay taxes, but on top of that I must spend time on preparing them, I must pay an accountant, I must figure out all the insane complications of the tax code and if I forget something – they will make me to pay for that too. But if they screw up something and I have to spend time and money again to prove I am not at fault – the most I could hope for is “ok, fine, you’re in the clear, for now”…. Amount of money and effort spend on this baloney every year is astonishing and depressing. – SM
• Keeping the paperwork. The part I hate the most is keeping all the paperwork, receipts, etc all together each year and then having to file it away for 7 years! As organized as I try to be, it seems every year there is one donation receipt or something similar that I’m scrambling to find so we can file our taxes accurately. – Aurora

And finally, one last reason a reader Mark hates taxes: Paying them!

Feel free to add to the I hate taxes list. If anything, it’s a good way to vent when you need to take a break from working on filing your taxes this week!

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