According to the IRS: Individual taxpayers spent a total of 897 million hours in FY 2022 just on record-keeping. This is in addition to the 1.15 billion hours spent on tax preparation of individual returns. Business entities spent about 1.14 billion hours and $48.3 billion on tax preparation in FY 2022.
Tax season causes stress all year long. I’ll never forget how when my dad was 90 years old and in hospice care he told me to be sure and file his income tax return. He seemed very concerned.
The truth is that every penny of his income was reported to the IRS and he should not have had to have a tax return prepared at all.
As a business owner I pay $$$$ to have my taxes prepared. I can do them myself but found it too stressful and time consuming.
I especially remember warm sunny April weekends where I had to stay inside and work on my taxes.
I have to keep a lot of records but these days most of my record keeping is automated and I keep records as I go. It takes me about 3 hours to gather my information for the tax preparer. I mostly understand my taxes which helps me make decisions about business expenses.
I do my best to not over pay when I pay quarterly taxes because I don’t want to rely on the IRS to send me a refund. If I am due a refund I roll it over to pay first quarter taxes which are also due on April 15th.
Happy Tax Day!
