WellAtMidnight

It's that time of year again. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the girls are walking around with few enough layers of insulation that it's possible to tell they're female. So of course, the government decides to try and suck some happiness (and some money as well) away from us peons. Well, the better-organized peons have taken care of this months or weeks ago, but I don't count as well organized in anybody's book.

But for a grad student, tax time is actually somewhat comical. What, you say, have you gone around the bend?. Well, I went around the bend a while back; but bear with me a bit.

Like many grad students, I'm paid of a federal grant. Which federal grant varies with the academic year (and seeming the phase of the moon). Sometimes I get paid bi-weekly, sometimes per-semester. Part of the time I have money withheld for taxes, part of the time I don't.

Following the money goes somewhat like this: 1. The federal government gives me money, 1.(b) the federal government keeps some of the money it gives me, but doesn't keep some of the money it gave me another time, 2. I give money to the federal government (I guess paying taxes isn't giving as such, but I'm trying to simplify things here), 3.it gives back some of the money that it gave me, but withheld, 3.(b) or I have to give the government money because it hasn't withheld enough.

At this point I'm inclined to laugh at the absurdity of this entire process, as it would seem to be much simpler if the government simply gave me less money and didn't make me bother with the paperwork (for that matter, there would be less paperwork on their end as well).

Well, either laugh or go drink...