the craziness of it all

I'm in a bad mood as I write this.  I do my best writing when I am irritated. My husband and I are both small business owner.  Bill operates a design and print business, I own a fitness studio, the 2 of us together operate a kayak and SUP rental and sales business.
As small business owners we do EVERYTHING!
Take my business as a fitness studio for instance:
I do almost all of the fitness training, sales, bookkeeping, marketing, data entry, housekeeping, customer service, etc...  the list goes on and on and on...
Around Tax season I am asked to then make an inventory list of EVERYTHING in my studio I purchased for business and then to pay taxes on all of that (again - yearly).
So the weights, mats, books and magazines, CD's, notebooks, paperclips, chairs, tables, magnets holding my display board up, the display board, the hammer and nails, the desks,  You name it... EVERYTHING that exists in my studio I am supposed to itemize, keep track of the costs (if I acquired it for free I need to get an actual cost if I were have to buy it)  Then after I figure out EVERYTHING I have for my business, I have to categorize it into categories that make very little sense and then figure out what year everything was purchase and THEN... I get to figure out the taxes owed on all that.  Every year.  So I purchase the items once - pay for taxes then. And since I own a business I get to continue to pay taxes on everything I ever bought every year I am in business.
I am not a fan of taxes.  I hate taking time out of my already busy schedule to tell the IRS every shred of everything I own and every penny I have ever made.  It takes me weeks to figure it all out and it is exhausting and stressful - not to mention the hours I lose being able to work my actual business.

My husband and I are not rich people according to whatever someone somewhere decided was the poverty level.  funny thing though, our kids eat enough food, we have a roof over our heads, we own our own cars (no payments) and we are happy.  Do we have a flat screen TV?  no.  Do we have a new car right off the lot?  no.  Do we pay for health insurance? no. Do we take our kids to the Doctor at the first sign of a sniffle? no.  We cure our own kids with nutrition, essential oils and herbs so we save a bundle on medical expenses. We go to the Lake and play with the whole family.  The kids get to play with us.  We have very little debt (other than a house that we no longer have... another story another day...)  We are very happy and at peace with wehre we are.  BUT  every year we are asked to file a tax return to tell the government how much money we did or did not make.  and every year the IRS sends us a nice sized check.  It's stooopid!  Do we NEED it?  well... who could use a few extra thousand dollars a year sent to them by the IRS?  But do we NEED it?  ugh. I am swallowing hard as I write - no.  We can get by without it.  when that check comes in we plan - well... we could get some more inventory, we could pay for some medical stuff.  we could get some new glasses.  we could get the car fixed.  Nothing fancy for us.  we are pretty simple people.  Some people take vacations or buy new TV's.  Do you realize that every penny we get back is part of the National debt?  anything you purchase with a tax return check is money that doesn't exist.  You are buying stuff with FAKE money!  So really we all have stolen goods if we get a tax return and bought something with it. The money isn't real anymore. 

Bill and I stop our work for a week or to round up receipts, expenses, invoices, mileage, download statements, etc... there is stress on us as we try to deal with each other Him and his lack of organization skills me and my lack of perfection in trying to find every last penny.  (I have a habit of walking away from it and saying "screw it")  So we yell at each other, and get really grumpy.  I snap at the kids and I would rather just NOT do my taxes at all.  After Filing our legally required paperwork every year, we get a nice check.  You know what it's good for?  to make up for the money we lost when we couldn't run our businesses because we were trying to find papers and download files.    I don't need the check. I need to run my business.  I am so tired of people whining that they are "entitled" to tax dollars.  Go work your ass off and quit whining.  I'd send you my check, but I am going to fix my kid's broken bikes and put up a fence for my dog this year.  I'd rather be working than filing my tax return.  Thanks for the money Uncle Sam. Maybe someday you will quit asking for me to prove what I make and I will quit telling you how very little it is and you can quit thinking I need a pity check every year and start paying off some of your own damn debt.  Thanks Uncle Sam. I don't need your medicaid and I don't need your Social Security.  I just need you to leave me alone and let me work!