Now it can be told: What tax season is really like

With 25 years of tax under my belt, I have learned some things are consistant year after year. I no longer try to describe what tax season is like. It is hard to convey without having been there, but here goes.


1. When I say under my belt, that is literally true. Work is awash in food. Dinner is provided when you work overtime, treats are all around. They try to make it comfortable. Just like that warren in Watership Down

2. Every year I consider growing a beard because I resent the time it takes to shave as I am tying to get ready and out the door in the mornings. (Beginning mid March, I am at work about 5:00 a.m. (some people have been there for hours when I arrive) and work till about 8:00 p.m (some people will be there hours after I leave, but not the same people who are there before me) During the last week there will be a few days with about 4 hours from the time I leave work unti I get back.

2. Tax time simplifies life. My focus for a few months is on only one thing. After tax season is over and I have recovered from the pneumonia I contract the week after the 15th (I shouldn't exaggerate, it has only turned into pneumonia 3 times, other times it has been some other ailment, but the last 3 or 4 years I haven't been sick at all)

3. It's necessary to plan things like haircuts early in tax season, there will be no time later and a haircut to early means things may get pretty shaggy by April 15th. April 16th is the day for getting a haircut and other things that have been put off for just a bit too long.

4. After two and a half months of having pizza at work every Saturday, pizza loses it's appeal.

5. The stress from tax season does not come from the work that arrives. That always gets done. The stress comes from:

a. those who think that they are getting close to the deadline and won't have their return when the deadline is still 72 hours or more away. A LOT can get done in the last weekend. The question "Is my return done yet?" feels a lot like the question when i was 10, "is the book report done yet?"

b. all co-workers are sleep deprived and are feeling a little stress themselves. Working around everyone who is stressed is a unique atmosphere,

c. I recall comments by former co-workers during tax season. "I don't need an alarm clock. The thought of what I have waiting at work fills me with terror and gets me out of bed and gets me going". Another comment from a co-worker. " I feel like I'm a prisoner, I can't go anywhere, I can't do anything. I am confined here except for sleeping." My first tax season I thought I was working long hours when I would catch the last bus out of down town at 7:20 p.m. Boy was I ignorant

6. During tax season I tend to measure my sleep in how many sleep cycles I can fit in (a sleep cycle is about 90 minutes) I try to always get at least three cycles, but for a few days it will drop to two. Probably a half dozen times in the last 25 years I have worked all through the night

7. One of the pleasures of tax season is listening to the rebroadcast of general conference which starts at midnight on KSL. Generally I can only last for the first session but occasionally I have heard part of the 2nd session.

8. Sometime during tax season I will recall with amusement a time when I was going to school full time working on my masters degree, working full time (nights) with a janitorial service and serving as a counselor in a bishopric at church. I recall looking up at the sky one Monday morning about 4 a.m. as I was emptying trash and thinking I would be glad when I was though school and could have a regular job with normal hours. Things actually are more normal now. It used to be that every Sunday-Monday was a 20 hour marathon

9. I have learned that I can't work long hours every day. Now I try to alternate working 13 hours with working 12 hours. On Saturdays I like to not set the alarm, get to work a little later (7:30-8:00) work about 5 or 6 hours, go home for a few hours in the day light and then go back in the evening for about 3 hours. this will get me close to 70 hours a week.

10. There are typically two people each year that Julie will meet at work that are having problems with taxes. She will volunteer me to help them out.

11. People are generally understanding of the non essential things that can be put off till after April 15th. Unfortunately It's hard for them to understand that there are enough things put off till after the 15th that it takes 3-4 weeks to get it all done. It doesn't all happen in the first week

11. I LOVE the work I do outside of work helping people with their taxes. (In February) I don't get the stress (see point 5) from them and it is the appreciation and kind words that help me deal with the stress. Several years ago, I had LASIK surgery. During the procedure a nurse just took my hand and held it. I was amazed at the comfort that provided to help get through a stressful time. Likewise the kind, encouraging, thoughtful expressions from others help me survive the stressful last few weeks of tax season. They are like water in the desert.

12 Just as tax time simplifies life for me, it also simplifies what I expect from others. All that anyone around me needs to do is to anticipate and deal with every need or wish that I have, without my saying anything, make no demands of me, and be perfect in every way.

13. People think that April 15 is a busy day. Actually it is not. Things better not be too busy after April 13.

Easy and Hard

When I was in junior high, I wanted to expand my participation on the track team from the half mile to the long jump. I approached my mom about allowing me to dig a landing pit so I could practice at home. She agreed and recommended a location to put it. I dug out the grass, removed any rocks, and made a nice soft place to land. The next year my landing pit was converted to a garden. It is much easier to dig a landing pit than it is to dig a garden.

When the new Duty to God award was introduced, I was working with young men and decided to fulfill all of the requirements myself. My son also filled all the requirements for the one year of he had remaining in Young Men. He did not know he was filling requirements and might well have provided static had he been doing only that. Instead, as a family we filled the scripture reading requirements, to prepare for life after high school we filled other requirements, to help me out when I was busy I would ask him to do things and still more requirements were filled. He did not even know he was working on a program and the years requirements were completed in the natural course of day to day and without complaint or fussing. It was easy.

How many more things are harder or easier then they need to be because of the purpose we think is being accomplished by our actions?