A Taxes Tornado

Wednesday October 14th, 2009 - Mt. Prospect, IL

Taxes are nothing to joke about so I don’t. It used to be a sore spot for many years until I found my current accountant but I’ve managed to stay current for the most part and keep the pain to a minimum. This year I seem to have gotten behind again for whatever reason.

I’ve gotten better and better each year at keeping my receipts and all that but organizing them is a different story. I bought a clear plastic container specifically with the purpose of using it to keep my receipts in order but all I did was throw them all in there haphazardly.

Yes, they were all in one place and that was a major improvement over scattering them everywhere but I could have been a lot more organized with just a little more effort. Why I couldn’t take a few minutes each week and add everything up is beyond me. I blew it.

Like the science project in school that gets put off until the night before, I kept putting it off until this week for whatever reason. I’ve had a lot going on this year and taxes weren’t my first priority, but I have no excuse for not having them done by now. I just let it lapse.

Then, to make it even worse I have a second container I bought that has all my tax stuff for this year in it. The piles got crossed a little so I had to sort through every little scrap of paper to see which belonged to which year. It took a full day’s work to do that and I mean eight solid hours. I woke up at 6am and finished up around 2:30, but at least I got it done.

Not only did I sort it out by years, I also put all my ‘09 stuff in proper order and put it in an individual envelopes so I can find everything at a glance. Usually I don’t do the sorting of it all until I get ready to go to the accountant and it’s an all day chore that I can’t stand.

This was totally different and the more I did it the better I felt. I think this is the earliest I’ve ever had my tax stuff organized this much and I can’t believe I was that stupid to just let it pile up every year with no rhyme or reason to it. I feel like a total ass but that’s what I did. There really is no reason for it other than I wasn’t on top of it. That’s changing now.

Taxes are a part of any business and comedy is absolutely a business. I’ve always put an emphasis on the show part and ignored the business but if I want to move ahead that’s not the way to handle it. I have a show, now I need to sell it to buyers who’ll pay more for it.

I always say I’m going to make a better effort with my taxes but then I let it pile up for a year and have to dig through the mess again. It’s a real weakness but at least next year I’m ahead of the game. I was proud of myself when I finished because I know I did it the right way. Now it’s a matter of weekly maintenance and I really think I can make that happen.

None of this has anything to do with being funny or getting work but I look at it like it’s the roof on a house. Keeping the roof maintained will keep everything inside safe from all elements. Keeping my taxes maintained now will save me countless headaches later when real money starts coming in. It was totally worth one day of my life to get myself current.