Although I always do my own taxes, and it usually is a fairly smooth process, it is also time-consuming and sometimes stressful.

I’m usually quite meticulous about hanging onto even the smallest receipts until I’ve accounted for the spending. I even record the 50¢ or so I pay for snacks that I bring home from work. Of course, sometimes things slip through, and so every so often I compare the cash I have with what I think I should have, and the difference goes to miscellaneous expense and/or my best guess. Because I am so careful, it really bothers me when I have a bill that I cannot account for, or when a discrepancy shows up in a balance. This doesn’t happen too often, but there’s usually one or two snurks in each year’s tax preparation.

Of course, there are also the occasional happy surprises. There have been at least two years when I found, while getting caught up on my bank reconciliations, that I had $500–1000 more than my checkbook balance contained.

And here’s a little FYI for you: Did you know that, according to IRS policy, if you make a loan to someone, and do not charge interest, or charge interest below the “applicable federal rate,” you have to pay tax on the interest you did NOT charge? It’s true! You can read all about it in Publication 525. (It’s way down the page under “Below-market loans.”) Not only that, but the borrower who did not pay the interest that you did not charge, may have to pay tax on what you didn’t charge them, depending on the circumstances. I’m not a tax expert, but my best guess is that this is based on the idea that the federal interest rate represents inflation, and inflation is the only way to rightly estimate the value of money; and if you don’t charge interest, you are effectively losing money, which is effectively the same as giving it away to the person you made the loan to. Naturally you cannot give away something you never had, so the IRS taxes you for receiving the interest (as though you received it and then gave it away). At least this is the impression left by their explanation of how this tax law works.

Also from the same IRS publication: (I hope this doesn’t apply to any of you!) “If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.” Hmmm. What if someone returns something that they stole, but waits until the following tax year? Does it become taxable income for the person who receives it back?