Who else couldn’t enjoy their hard fought tax victory?

I don’t know how much you make per hour, but the $60 or so you saved (and whose money is going to build those roads anyway?), seems far less than worth 12 hours of life. And I don’t know what you mean when you say that you didn’t win cleanly—does that mean you are cheating on your taxes? And if so, why would you be basking in victory? If you fight a good clean fight and win, usually you would feel good about it. But if you feel you did something wrong, perhaps that is why you don’t feel so great.

If you fought that hard for $60 or $70 I am guessing you are not in the top tax bracket. That also would mean there is not that much to play around with, your taxes are probably pretty straight forward. I think you wasted your time agonizing over those dollars for so many hours. I have no idea your total payment to the government, but if you are a full time worker $60 is close to nothing compared to what you have actually paid. Plus, what is there to fool with? How much you donated this year? How much sales tax you paid in your state? Business expenses? I underestimate those things usually, true the fed probably comes out a little ahead with my taxes. I’d rather pay a little more and have less risk of audit, which would be a whole shitload of more wasted time. Just me.

Good on you! This financial setback to the gummint should give them no choice but to finally cancel funding for anymore F 22’s. ;-)

Sneak in a couple of donated bags of clothes to Good Will and you could even get a refund!

Personally, I respect the police officers, fire fighters, and soldiers who protect me in ways I don’t even know. I also respect the prosecutors, public defenders, and judges who do their best to sort the guilty from the innocent and keep the former away from my family. Moreover, I don’t know where I’d be without the teachers who gave me the tools to succeed in life; and I know a lot of people in my city who rely on the retired account on Medicare who volunteers to do their taxes for free.

Quite frankly, some of these people can be annoying at times. I once had to wait at a red light for a whole extra 30 seconds while a fire engine darted around traffic just to save someone’s life. Then there were the teachers who kept giving me homework and that public defender who wouldn’t help me get out of a parking ticket just because he had to defend some guy who turned out to have been wrongly accused. Seriously, don’t they realize that society is all about me?

Yes, I’m interested in eliminating wasteful spending and making the government more efficient. Yes, I share the general apathy towards my elected officials that permeates the American citizenry. But I’m mature enough to realize they aren’t the ones who will be affected by how much (or little) I pay, and it seems to me that cheating on my taxes is not the most credible way of fighting corruption. Nor can I complain about the government borrowing from others if I won’t even pay what I owe.

I’m sure that you benefit on a daily basis from services that are supported by taxes.

Was there cheating involved? I didn’t get that from the question. I thought that @Hypocrisy_Central was just very diligent in finding all of his legal tax deductions. If that is the case then I say god job. If he cheated, then no, I don’t think that he should feel good about it.

@wilma Was there cheating involved? No, there was no cheating, seriously if I had cheated do anyone think I would owe a dime? I would have said I purchased a hybrid car when I didn’t, claimed my cats, my neighbor’s cat, mooching relatives, and then some to milk that EIC for every cent it had. If I had cheated instead of feeling like a wringed out dish rag I would be planning a trip to Fry’s to get a big screen. I just did my best Columbo and ferreted out every possible hidden deduction I had coming.

@wilma Fair enough. One can change my last paragraph as follows:

“Yes, I’m interested in eliminating wasteful spending and making the government more efficient. Yes, I share the general apathy towards my elected officials that permeates the American citizenry. But I’m mature enough to realize they aren’t the ones who will be affected by how much (or little) I pay, and it seems to me that spending hours and hours looking for extra deductions simply isn’t worth my time. Nor can I complain about the government borrowing from others if I make it scrounge for every dime.”

Why isn’t @Hypocrisy_Central basking in his “victory”? Because being successful at a pointless task hardly counts as a victory at all. I might as well ask why I wouldn’t feel good about figuring out how many blades of grass my lawn contains. It would be quite a task, but it’s rather pathetic to care that much about such a thing.

@SavoirFaire Because being successful at a pointless task hardly counts as a victory at all. Saving a buck is pointless? Maybe you are in the top 5% of America or at least the top 15%? Not everyone has the luxury in this economy to just buy what they want and not pay attention to the price. To you it might be pointless to attempt to save money or if the actual cost of saving it took more than 5 hours I had no ideal it would take that long it just did, but I know people, myself included, who don’t think so. Tell the mother who can hardly afford formula for her baby saving money is pointless if you have to put effort into doing it. Tell the coupon queens I know they are doing a pointless act clipping all those coupons. Tell the guy who needs glasses for his kid but his insurance won’t cover the whole cost and he has to come out of pocket so his kid can see right that saving a buck is pointless. If you have a fat 401k, treasury bills, stocks and bonds up to the gills great, many of us out here are trying to buy gas, make a mortgage, and still eat more than gram crackers for dinner.

@Hypocrisy_Central My wife and I are in or around the 35th percentile regarding incomes. As such, we are obviously nowhere close to the top 5% or 15%. Nor did I say that saving money isn’t worthwhile, so most of your response is really just bluster (not that I’m surprised). What’s pointless is spending hours and hours trying to reduce your tax burden purely out of spite. It’s a miserly undertaking that brings no joy—as you have already admitted.

But as usual, thank you for your completely unfounded accusations.

I meant to write “good job” up^^ there, not ”god job”.

I also spend a lot of time and effort trying to get all the deductions that I am entitled to. I want to pay my share, and not pay any more than what I am obligated to, to the government.
With that being said, I am quite generous with my volunteer time and money and goods to various charitable and non-profit organizations. Tax obligations and responsibilities are one thing, but I like to also have more say in what I support. What you do and give of your own volition, to me is where there is greater responsibility.

Congrats @Hypocrisy_Central. A hard battle well fought. When your blood pressure returns to normal, you should feel the satisfaction of keeping your own money.