All of our married life, we've had to discipline our reactions to, what felt like, unfair tax laws in this country. No kids, no mortgage, no debt.....does not make for a pleasant income tax appointment. Our friends would be thrilled with their big refunds, while we owed money we didn't have. We went to the bank and borrowed the money to pay our income taxes, after the maximum amounts had already been deducted from our paychecks all year long. It was a slaughter, but then came along the IRAs. Instead of giving our money to Uncle Sam, we invested our borrowed money in IRAs, which brought our annual income down and offset the tax owed. We paid ourselves instead of Sam. There came a point when enough was enough.
Down the street from our accountant's office is a down-home cafe with red cracked-vinyl booths and tables for four. Homemade pies are stacked in see-through cases to tempt the diner, the daily specials are posted on a blackboard, and are absolutely delicious. The mashed potatoes have lumps of real potatoes and the gravy oozes down over the potatoes and puddles into the vegetables. It's the kind of meal that I desperately want to lick the plate off when I'm done eating.....it's that good!
Did you ever notice that
when you put the words
"The" and "IRS" together,
it spells THEIRS?