Our taxing problem.

OK, so the pressure is off. I've filed my income taxes. I guess I'm supposed to be relieved, but I find myself feeling like I've been put through undue stress. Mostly because I feel like the federal income tax system is a burden on people - regular people, not people - and needs to be abolished.

Why is it that the most feared day on the calendar is April 15? It's feared because we are told that if we don't have our taxes filed by then, our lives are in danger and the giant Internal Revenue Service will come crashing down on our lives like that big Monty Python foot.

Get your taxes done. It's such a big deal that the local news stations will have people lurking at the big post offices on Tuesday night letting us in on the big rush to the mail box so that we get our returns in before the federal government fines us for being late.

It's a billion-dollar a year business. I use Turbo Tax, but many people use the strip-mall tax preparers and pay for the instant rebate that pays the strip-mall preparers more than the people who might just as well have waited a few extra days for their "refund".

They call it a refund, but what it really is is an over-payment. I have relatives that get five thousand dollars in over-payments every year. Would they be better off getting an extra hundred dollars in their paycheck every week and a $200 overpayment at the end of the year? You bet your ass. But it's hard to convince them that they're giving the federal government (hated far and wide) an interest-free loan every year. They like the big check. It's what keeps the world spinning from March to May.

As for me (if you were wondering) I paid the feds $42 and got $68 back from the state, so I'm happy that it's over with for another year.