April 15th is behind us, and I’m relieved. I’m an independent contractor in a cash business. I pay my taxes quarterly and file them without the help of a CPA. It’s taken me a long time and a lot of research to figure out what I’m doing. Come this year, I feel like I finally have a handle on how my specific situation works. But one thing hasn’t changed. From the beginning, I’ve been hellbent on being honest. Call me stupid, but I pay taxes on every dollar that I make. You’re either honest or you’re not. If you skim a little bit, you’re dishonest.
I have no respect for even otherwise good people that cheat on their taxes. And I’ve noticed that everyone that cheats has a shitty excuse. It’s confusing. It’s expensive. They haven’t filed for the last five years and they don’t know where to start. But of all the excuses, there is an underlying current of truth: the real reason they don’t pay their taxes is because they don’t think they’ll get caught. And they probably won’t. But I’m tired of people using that as an excuse to do the wrong thing. What happened to doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do?
Cheating on your taxes is a “fuck you” not to Uncle Sam, but to others that do the right thing. I hate going into work on a quarterly tax deadline date and watching others work, knowing that I just cut a check to Uncle Sam that day. One that hurt to write. And yet most if not all of the others are living in sweet oblivion having missed the postmark deadline for their quarterly tax payment. They don’t know. They don’t care. And all I can think about is that if I had been a cheat for the past four years, I could have made a down payment on a house.
If you cheat on your taxes, I don’t want to hear about it. Not only are you better than everyone else, but you probably also have a martyr-esque excuse to not do the right thing. Spend the government’s money on yourself. Remain above the law and give yourself a raise. You must need it more than I do. You look and work like everyone else, but you’re a cheat. And simply because you can get away with it. That’s weak. Also. Go fuck yourself.