Saturday, March 17, 2007

love and taxes

We went and saw our accountant yesterday. He saved us $600 or so in taxes. Considering he charged $150 (a big discount) that comes out to a savings of $450. We don't get a lot witheld because I prefer to have my money from month to month than getting a return in the end. People think its free money when really its just your money that the government has been holding on to you for a year. Let me hold onto it. But that's a whole other story
Anyway the whole situation ended up being my first real feminist experience. My whole life I've heard about the challenges facing women. My mother is a beautiful intelligent woman who has challenged the conventional role of a woman and been a wonderful example to me. Oddly though, I have never been a vocal feminist. I've never really faced male domination in my world but here it is.
I take care of the money in our family. My family will probably be worried about that, but I've come a long way and soo we will be able to buy a house and that feels really good. Before we went to our accountant (who is really Don's accountant) I started doing our taxes myself online. Oddly enough I started on my sister Gillian's birthday and when consulting our 2005 tax returns I noticed we had done our taxes on Gill's birthday that year too. It's like the one last fun thing to celebrate before worrying about getting down to business. Anyway I was busy trying to find deductions and getting everything together but it wasn't really working so we decided to give this guy a try. Now when I do my taxes myself I naturally put my name first as the and then Cory as my spouse. But when we went to this guy it was automatically Cory as the primary and I was the spouse, even though:
1. I made almost double what Cory made
2. I made the appointment with the tax guy
3. Walked in with all the papers and information we needed
4. I did all the talking
5. and it was clear that I was the one who took care of the money

In the end this isn't a big deal and I understand that he files so many taxes at this time of year and he's used to filing the husband first. Also he had just finished doing Don's taxes and so it makes sense he would put Cory's name first. I just kind wish I had said something.

1 comment:

Gregory said...

i think i really 'got it' with the third read through. the first two, i admit, i was skeptical that you really a) did your own taxes and b) were a feminist. but by the third entry of love and taxes, i was totally on your side.
also, how does cory feel about being immasculated publicly over the internet. three times in a row, i might add.
personally, if i do end up marrying rachel, it will be nice to have someone around to actually make us money. fiction supplemented journalism really doesn't bring in the bucks bucks bucks.