I've been filing tax returns in the US for eight years now. The system still baffles me. We did ours early this year (today) and I was thinking about the right way to describe this mystifying process to people who don't have to bother with this sort of thing.
Then it came to me:
I liken it to boarding a bus to work every day where-in the bus driver says: "Hey...pay what you think you should pay. At the end of the year, the bus company will tell you whether you paid enough."
So, you board the bus every morning and pay a dollar. Why not? It feels about right.
Then you hear on the radio about the high cost of running a public transit system and you think: "Hmmm...maybe I should pay $1.25."
Later, you hear that you're actually eligible for a discount because you're a frequent system user, but by now you're so paranoid about the cost of the system that you keep paying $1.25.
Then judgment day comes.
You are required by the bus company to complete documentation which describes every journey you made on the bus during the year.
Furthermore, you must detail each and every passenger you talked to on the bus during the entire year and state whether you traveled alone, with luggage, for work, or for pleasure.
Finally, the bus company hands you a demand for $2,622.47, not because you paid too little in fares, but because you bought a car back in March and it wasn't a hybrid.
And that's about as much sense as the whole thing makes.
Except for today, when we found out we are going to get a rebate. Today, the system makes perfect sense!
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