I couldn't find the vouchers needed to pay the April 2014 federal estimated tax payment! I knew that our accountant had provided the papers, but they were nowhere to be found.
Until I looked in the last possible place, of course.
From Murphy Laws Site (an excellent site):
Oh dear! Terrible when something like that happens. I always put all the really important papers on top of the piano the minute they come in. That way I KNOW they will not get lost, because that is the place I go to every day first thing in the morning, and check periodically throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't DARE keep anything in the Computer Room. I call my office "The Wastepaper Basket," because that is exactly what it looks like -- a HUGE trash container. ;-)
Fortunately, ever since I've been retired, very few important items come through the mail, so the piano never gets "junked up,." thank God.
May I suggest, using large brown envelopes labeled with "magic marker."
FEDERAL TAX
STATE TAX
LOCAL TAX
HOUSEHOLD UTILITY BILLS
DEDUCTIBLE EXPENSES, etc.
Keep those envelopes in ONE prominent place -- apart from other papers -- and then make it an iron-clad habit to use them IMMEDIATELY when one of those important items arrives.
That way you couldn't possibly -- go wrong -- go wrong. -- go wrong -- go wrong.
Or COULD you? ;-)
I'm the organized one at our house, my hubby's desk etc. looks like a hoarder owns it. He usually knows where everything is, how I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI have one long sleeve black dress. A few weeks back I was looking for it, couldn't find it anywhere. I knew it should be in the closet with my other dresses, I looked and looked, then looked where I keep pants, suits, coats hanging, thought maybe I had put it there by mistake. I decided it was long past time for me to clear out those closets, which I did. Gave all the good clothes I removed to a family who can use them. And yes, I found the black dress, right where I thought it was, right where it should have been. As my dear, dead, mother would have said, "If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you."
On the taxes, hubby filed ours electronically.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
Debbie,
DeleteI used to be quite organized and tidy. What has put this house into an incredible state of disorder if the moving of various pieces of furniture so as to accommodate the medical equipment that Mr. AOW has needed since 2009.
I cleaned out my closets a few years ago and got rid of mounds of clothes that were too small. Within 6 months, I wished that I had those clothes back because I had lost 40 pounds -- weight loss that I had given up on until I found a diet that actually worked.
Even though my closets are much better now, I still can't find my favorite purple sweatshirt. I know that I didn't give that away, but I can't find that sweatshirt anywhere. No doubt, it will turn up when the temperatures here are too hot for wearing a sweatshirt.
Now, my closets are fairly tidy. But the paperwork explosion in my office here at home? Bad news! I need to go through those mounds of paper and shred what is no longer of any significance.
Thanks for the reminder! The tax man comethe. How could we forget.
ReplyDeleteTell the IRS to go pound sand.
ReplyDeleteMurphy was an optimist
ReplyDeleteJeepers! And here I always thought he was a Hibernian.;-)
DeleteAOW, you might want this for nincompoopery
ReplyDeleteOh, thumbs up for May 2.
Duck,
DeleteI've added the link to tomorrow's "Nincompoopery." Thanks.
Well, there you have it -- clear proof that people of this ethnic and religious persuasion are not only innately barbaric and viciously cruel, they are also incredibly STUPID. What OTHER conclusion could you possibly draw? };-)>
DeleteDuck,
DeleteWe need to change the date -- or at least change the topic. WC will likely be unavailable on May 2. I'll send you an email when I get a chance. Maybe May 30?
Whenever.
DeleteDuck,
DeleteConfirmed for May 30.
WC is more knowledgeable about films than I and insists "I have to be there for the show to discuss films."
Funny how we always find things in the last place we look.
ReplyDeleteWhere were they?
Duck,
DeleteOn the stairs. Of all places!
As I think back, I was about to go upstairs to put the papers in their proper place -- I'm always very careful with tax papers -- and got sidetracked because Mr. AOW answered a call of nature and needed some assistance.
Thank God that I was in search of the papers early -- and not on April 15.
taxes..oiY!...good luck AOW! Have an awesome weekend my friend~!:-)
ReplyDeleteRemember that famous story by Edgar Allen Poe that deals with this exact subject? It was called The Purloined Letter. By all means read it, if you haven't lately. I'm sure it could easily be found online free of charge.
ReplyDeleteOften, when we're overly excited or anxious, or too much in a hurry, we literally cannot see what is RIGHT in FRONT of OUR FACES.
FT,
DeleteOh, I well know "The Purloined Letter"!
The tax vouchers were under a stack of papers on the stairs, so what Ii needed wasn't exactly in plain sight.
I'm sure it could easily be found online free of charge.
Probably. But combing through the IRS web site is not my idea of a good time.
We don need no steenken vouchers !
ReplyDeleteKid,
DeleteI wish!
I'll sing a saeta for you, next time! ;)
ReplyDeleteI sing a saeta every tax season -- including April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15. The oppressive government is cause for melancholia.
DeleteI'm not that senile. Yet.
ReplyDeleteThanks, AOW. I just realized I need to do my taxes, to gotta download TurboTax. Had to pay a bundle last year, but it was a strange year with my wife retiring and there being some lump sum payouts that were not tax protected, like her unpaid sick time. Funny that I never had any of that when I was managing sales people and traveling all over the country. But, that's the way government works.
ReplyDelete