Audited!!!

Audited by the IRS. OK, so audited may not be the correct term, but they decided to review my return from 2004 and they found some errors. Stuff that I didn't know existed, in both directions. Like my 'retirement' (non 401K) from my current employers is taxable (so there is a LARGE increase in income) and evidently the interest from my student loans finally got filed (I never got the forms, so I ignored it) and so my taxes went down. So in the end, I am owing almost $800. But it isn't the money (which I currently don't have due to my loan to the card store) it is the fact that this was for 2004.

Why is it anyway, that I have to file my return in the first place. Why can't the federal government calculate what it should be and take appropriate action. Why am I even in the loop. I bet for 90% of America that the tax process is simply addition and subtraction, if you have all the appropriate forms (which obviously I didn't) so why doesn't our system of government do that for us? They know the amounts. Hell, I don't even care if they keep the normal $200 refund a year if they would just not bother me to fill out their stupid forms. Seems like Income Tax forms are the biggest scam of all time. First the postal office gets to charge the IRS money to ship out all the forms, then they get to charge us to send them all back. Additionally all the trees that are killed in the process of completing the forms, and keeping records for 3 years. Why in this day and age are we still following such an archaic structure. Fill in the variables, tell the businesses that they have to conform to a new system of reporting W-2 results, and Viola! Income tax reporting is automatic.

And for the rest of you that like to be complicated, you still have to screw with the IRS and figure out how to do a form, but I bet in the end this would save the IRS BILLIONS, if they would simply automate the process. Which is exactly why it will never happen.

Game On!