Tax Day!

Today is favorite day of many members of the Congress. It's April 15th. It's the day that the average schlep needs to submit their tax forms. Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps it's not their favorite day. And here's why....

I find it humorous that many of my friends are bragging about how much their tax refunds were. Hello? Are you saying that this is your free windfall of money that the government is going to give to you? Your 1040 indicates that the government wants to give you $4000? Yay!!! Wow!!! That's awesome!!! Not likely.

This is YOUR money. YOU gave the government an interest-free loan of several thousand dollars. Now they are giving YOUR money back to you. It's YOUR money.

I finally met someone who gets it. I asked him if he was getting any back. He said he was getting $78 from the Feds and he owes the state of Maryland about $100. Perfect!

I think the ideal tax return is when you owe the government a little bit of money. Sure - it sucks giving the government money, but think of it this way - you are returning the money that you owe them. They let you hold onto it for a little longer and let you keep the interest that you made on the money.

So don't come telling me you found out you're getting 4-grand in your refund. Because I got that same 4-grand - only spread over 24 paychecks. Now let's figure out how to owe them less money.

So why might it not be the favorite day of our elected officials? Because it's the day that the government has to give back thousands of dollars to millions of tax filers because dumb-dumb didn't take enough exemptions on their W-2's.