I don’t mean to whine. Should suck it up and do my civic duty. Yeah, today is the day I always dread…getting my records together for the accountant so I can file my taxes. No offense to my dentist friends, but it is kinda’ like getting a tooth pulled without enough anesthesia. Try as I might each year, I always end up rummaging through disparate piles of forms and receipts trying to find all those assorted medical bills and charitable donations. I am supposed to remember which miles on my truck are deductible. Thankfully, my accountant has given me a log to keep track, but did I (or my wife for that matter) use it? And to make matters worse, many of the IRS rules change yearly, and trying to understand what they mean is like reading a physics manual on rocket propulsion.
There are times when I briefly consider what an acquaintance of mine in California did…pay no taxes. What could be easier? He was a health care professional and used some successful constitutional argument…for a while. The last I heard, he was in big legal trouble. Don’t know what happened to him.
What is the medical point to all this rambling? I can’t think of any. Maybe it is to be thankful, and thankfulness according to some medical studies seems to increase longevity. Thankful that we live in a country that allows us so many freedoms, including the freedom of expression. Thankful that our tax dollars at times are used to help others in need. Yeah, I know that there is a lot of waste and corruption, and it peeves me that my efforts today will in part help bankroll that. But, there some good intentions in our tax code, and today I will try to focus on that…..Richard R Samuel, MD Family Practice and Urgent Care Hayden, ID USA
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