April in Portland, taxes in blossom
It's that time of year – time to rant about the income tax hell known as Portland.
I'm getting near the tail end of the hours and hours spent each year on preparing taxes – a week earlier than usual, because Mudface Caligula's post office is deliberately slowing down postmarking to try to keep him out of prison. It's all going so well in this country, isn't it?
Anyway, just for the record, this year we'll have 10 forms to submit, not to mention the checks: Federal 2025, Oregon 2025, Tri-Met 2025, Portland Arts Tax 2025, Metro 2025, Multnomah County Income Tax 2025, City of Portland/Multnomah County Business Tax 2025, Federal first quarter 2026, Oregon first quarter 2026, and Portland/Mutnomah first quarter 2026. And I'm probably missing some other infernal money grab.
At least I'm through fretting about quarterlies for the Metro and Multnomah County income taxes. Would that the no-goodniks at City Hall were equally sensible. But no, quite the contrary! How about a new city utility tax, or else no street maintenance?
It's a lovely city, but there are many suitable alternatives in close proximity. The smarter you are, the better the 'burbs look at tax time.
The nonsense with USPS is infuriating, but at this point it's just one of a thousand things to hate about the domestic version of Operation Epic FUBAR. I just ticked my quarterlies calendar up by a couple of days to compensate, but the fact that we have to do it at all just to keep square with the folks that are screwing with us is dystopian shit. At least I've now learned (the hard way, of course) that you need to put "PO" before "Box" XXXXX when sending money to the IRS - USPS returned the letter addressed to Box XXXXX as "unable to deliver" costing me some interest. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteDictatorships are interesting.
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