Years ago, I decided I no longer wanted to feel annoyed about paying taxes. That year, my tax bill was a lot higher than I was expecting. I remember thinking what many of us might think, when we see how much we pay in taxes: “Wow. That’s a lot of money.”
Cue the frustration. The tinge of annoyance. The wave of anxiety. I’d worked so hard, and I had to give so much of it away. It didn’t feel fair.
Getting annoyed over your tax bill is unlikely to make much change.Credit: Simon Letch
Somewhere along the line, probably from some finance guru who brags incessantly about how little tax they pay, I had picked up the idea that paying tax was something to resent.
After all, I kept hearing that it was my money that the government was taking from me (as though I wasn’t the one choosing to live in this country).
Then, I had a moment where my dabbling in meditation and mindfulness kicked in. In the midst of all the thoughts and emotions, I paused for long enough to notice.
All this annoyance doesn’t change anything. Was it going to change my tax bill? No. Did the government of the day care? No. Did my accountant care? Nope. In the end, all that negativity was just hurting…me.
Tax laws are forever changing. They will continue to change. Sometimes in your favour, sometimes not.
There was a sobering realisation of the futility of all that internal drama. Regardless of how I felt about it, my tax bill was going to remain what it was.
So, if I’d done everything I could to be tax efficient, then whatever that tax bill is at the end of the year, couldn’t I just pay it without all the annoyance? Did I need to ruin my day over something I had little power to change at that moment?
How I learned to stop dreading my yearly tax bill
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30.01.2024
Years ago, I decided I no longer wanted to feel annoyed about paying taxes. That year, my tax bill was a lot higher than I was expecting. I remember thinking what many of us might think, when we see how much we pay in taxes: “Wow. That’s a lot of money.”
Cue the frustration. The tinge of annoyance. The wave of anxiety. I’d worked so hard, and I had to give so much of it away. It didn’t feel fair.
Getting annoyed over........
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