Taxes--A Paragraph a Day

It's tax season again--can you feel my stress level going up?  Not because we owe tons of money (we don't, because we don't make tons of money), but because the forms that we have to fill out are simply horrible, full of directions that often need three or four readings to be clear, and even then I'm never completely sure that I'm putting in the right numbers unless I'm copying them straight off a W-2.  Once I get past that stage, I have to depend upon my interpretation of the directions I'm reading, and I'll be honest--I'm never completely sure of what I do.  It's that unsureness that causes me the stress--am I doing this right?  Am I leaving something out, something that could cause me to owe more money, or something that could potentially get me a larger refund?  I'm not stressed about getting caught doing anything wrong, because I do try my best to be accurate and to do things right, but I constantly wish that things could be simpler for people like me.  My wife and I make modest amounts of money, and all the calculations that go into the forms are like some form of torture for those of us who aren't mathematically inclined.  Charge me a tax based on my income and that's that, okay?  I look forward to finishing up every year and getting this stress out of my life, and I look forward to the next ten or eleven months of not thinking about taxes again.  My life is much fuller and richer without the added stress of trying to do the math accurately and responsibly, and I wouldn't have all this extra stress if the process were just a bit simpler.  Since the stress is here, I have to accept it and deal with it, but I sure can wish that it weren't here, can't I?