Yup, today’s the day!  Last day for Canadians to file their tax returns and pay any tax they might have owing to the government.

I have a weird love/hate relationship with tax time.  On the one hand, because of the personal financial plans of myself and my husband, tax time usually represents a time that we get money back to boost our savings.  It’s also a good time to review our financial plans and make sure we are keeping on track with our values and goals.  On the other hand, I prepare income tax returns at work, which is often frustrating and stressful.  I’ve done this for a few seasons, and while I’m glad for the opportunity to learn more about how our tax system works, I’m also very glad when it’s over, the pace at work calms a bit, and I only get yelled at for things that relate to insurance, instead of getting yelled at for things that relate to taxes too.1

This year, I really wish that instead of charging some of our clients to prepare their taxes, I could educate them and show them how truly simple it is to do their own taxes.  I know this goes against the traditional business model, but for a few of our clients, even the $40 basic fee, is money they could be using for other more important things.2 That being said, if anyone is in the financial position to be able to afford having someone else prepare their income taxes and needs someone to do that for them, I have no problem offering my services and charging for my time.

Anyway, on to more geeky things . . . things I look forward to spending a little time on, after tax season :)

  1. Re-doing our book & movie inventory3
  2. Potentially purchasing a bar code scanner to assist with #1 above4
  3. Having more time to blog . . . at work (shhhh!  Don’t tell my boss!)
  4. Attending WordCamp Vancouver!5
  5. Plotting for NaNoWriMo 2010.  Both my particular novel6 and coordinating the VanCoWriMo 2010 events with my fellow MLs.
  1. Ok, I’m exaggerating, there is usually only minimal yelling. [↩]
  2. I do try to discount the tax returns for those in need as much as I can, but because I’m not the only person preparing taxes, there has to be some consistency with the pricing model we use. [↩]
  3. I think I could handle working as a librarian one day. [↩]
  4. we could do it by hand, but this would be much faster [↩]
  5. Yup, one of my co-workers arranged a swap with me.  I’m working the Sunday prior to WordCamp, but I actually don’t mind Sunday shifts since they are entirely solo. [↩]
  6. which I really need to start planning ASAP!!! [↩]

Related posts:

  1. 5 Geek Things for Friday – Gamer Geek Edition
  2. Five Geek Things for Friday: Easter Edition
  3. 5 Geek Things for Friday – Plotting Tools Edition
  4. 5 Geek Things for Friday
  5. 5 Geek Things for Friday: Things I’m not doing