April 2004

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Every year around this time I realize that the legislators of the State of North Carolina have as a goal to drive me, Becky, crazy. I'm not sure why they think I need to be insane, but they work very, very hard to make sure their goal is met.

And lucky me, I get to pay for the privilege of losing my mind.

Why yes, I am griping about taxes. I'm not complaining about taxation in general. I understand the principles. My gripe is with the state's tax form.

This sucker is four pages long. It's one of those blasted printed-in-red forms with the fill-in-boxes. One has to have done one's federal return already, because the taxable income from that return is the starting point for North Carolina to add to or subtract from. And that's where the craziness begins.

They really want to rub it in that it costs a lot to live here. For instance, even those taking the standard deduction on the federal return have to provide the amount of said deduction, then do the math and see that the state's standard deduction is smaller than the federal one, in painful detail. Please fill in the red boxes with blue or black ink.

And so forth and so on. The instructions are very thorough, even to the point of stating that if one plans to write a check to pay any due taxes, one must use blue or black ink on the check.

If I weren't afraid the rules allow the Department of Revenue to pitch a hissy, I swear I'd grab my blue-black ink...