A tax tip from my pastor
March 3rd, 2008 | by mbhunter |(The Money Blog Network is doing a group writing project on tax advice. This post is part of that project.)
The tax tip from my pastor wasn’t Matthew 22:21 — “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” — though there’s no doubt that one could avoid a lot of problems by following those words.
His advice boiled down to this: Do your taxes with someone.
He was recounting how much he hated filling out financial aid forms for his college-aged children, and how he came up with just about every excuse in the book to postpone them to the last minute. This year he tried something different. He filled out the financial aid forms with them, and did their taxes with them, pretty quickly. Doing the work with someone else takes the drudgery out of it, and also offers an opportunity to relate with the other person. (Hour after hour of money talk shouldn’t be without an occasional rabbit trail.) Any opportunity to get to know your loved ones better is a good thing; getting your 1040 out in record time is the icing on the cake.
Who would have thought tax time could help your relationship with your family?
3 Responses to “A tax tip from my pastor”
By The Saving Freak on Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
My wife and I do our taxes together. It definitely speeds up the process. That could also be because she files everything away and then I cannot find it without her.
By G.E. Miller on Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
I do taxes with my wife and good ole’ Turbotax. Makes it kind of fun to see that money owed total shrink as you fill in your deductions.