Well my hubby is doing the annual dance called figuring out your taxes. What a complex activity that is as you try to first of all FIND all the forms, then try to GATHER all the receipts from the past year plus LOCATE your tax papers from last year to guide you through the process. I like the way my church handles taxing (or TITHING). Mormons pay one tenth off the top of all their earnings before taxes. That's so much easier to figure out and of course if you want to donate more, you can.
This year I am going to be claiming income as a teacher and writer of articles and books. That makes me feel important I AM A WRITER and actually get a few dollars here and there from people buying my book or articles. Nothing much but nevertheless RECOGNITION. I also write a weekly column for a local paper but that's a freebie-get nothing but publicity and notoriety! Lol! So life has it's challenges and we hope to not have to pay any more taxes this year. Pres. Obama or someone else put in an addition of $1,000 to add to your standard deduction IF you pay real estate taxes which we do, so that should help. Hurrah, we get $25 back on our federal return now to do the state tax forms.