Tax Time

Doing my taxes is not high on my list of fun things to do during my lunch hour, but I always remind myself of the following:

---Taxes pay for things.
---When my street light goes out, I don’t have to pick up a bulb from Lowes and shimmy up a pole.
---When the fire department comes out for a fire, you don’t have to cut them a check.
---Clean water comes out of my tap without me having to tell anyone, “Hey, I want clean water!”
---The police have yet to charge me for when I call them on the neighbors and they have to bring out 5 squad cars and a helicopter. (On a related note, does anyone have a house in a nice neighborhood I can buy? Or a nice guy I can marry who lives in said house? It’s okay if he’s on his death bed…)
---$10,000 per year for private school ($130,000 for K-12 education) vs. $0 for public school. (Top that!)
---When something goes wrong in the government I can actually reach a representative. (Or, as one put it, "It's you again!")
---Amtrak’s Capital Corridor is the best trip ever!
---Cal Grant and Pell Grant were very good to me.
---While UPS and Fed Ex wanted $66 and $72 to ship my box to Hawaii, USPS only wanted $20. (No wonder they’re going broke!)

Plus:
---Taxes support libraries.
---I like having a job.
---Libraries are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. (Or, in Kids’ Place, it’s sweater weather in the summer and bikini season in the winter.)
---Having a job and healthcare is a good thing.
---We have DVDs you can borrow for free.
---Having a paycheck means I can pay for incidentals such as food, clothes and a roof over my head.

Remember, there are a few things you don’t want to mess with in life, and IRS is at the top of the list. If you haven’t filed your taxes yet and you made under $58,000 last year, you can file both your state and federal taxes for free!!! Go to the Beehive to do so.



Tax time, too, shall pass.

The Spring Equinox

The vernal (or spring) equinox falls on March 20th this year. On this day the rays of the sun touch directly over the equator. The sun hits perpendicular to the earth’s surface, and this even exposure of sunlight makes the night and the day the same length everywhere. On every other day of the year (except the autumn equinox!) the sun hits the earth at an angle, and this causes the deflection of light to the north or to the south. After the spring equinox, the sun will continue its journey north to the Tropic of Cancer. It will be June Solstice when the suns’ rays touch this invisible line and the start of summer for us northerners.

In the northern hemisphere, March 20th brings spring.

Spring and the spring equinox have long been celebrated as a time of life, renewal, and rebirth. Many religious holidays falling in March and April are associated with the onset of spring. The connotations of spring inspire authors and artists. The title of Rachel Carson’s classic, Silent Spring, hints at the misuse of our planet and the interference with nature’s death/life cycles. Stravinsky’s ballet, Rite of Spring, subtitled Pictures of Pagan Russia, literally caused a riot at its premier in Paris on May 29, 1913 with its unconventional and edgy themes- a celebration of pagan rituals ultimately leading to the sacrifice of a virgin to appease the gods of spring.

Consider the following:

• Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.
• Early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the spring equinox.
• The rocks of Stonehenge mark the position of the rising sun on the spring equinox.
• The spring equinox marks the beginning of Nowruz, the Persian New Year
• Pagans celebrate Ostara, the rites of spring.
• The ancient Greeks have a deity of spring rites and flowering plants- the god-man Dionysus.

Spring is also a good time for cleaning up. Having a neat house or office area is a great way to create room for spring’s renewing properties. Plus cleaning is an even greater way to find out where you set your tax forms, which is another thing associated with spring. So whether you are looking forward to coloring eggs, planting flowers, figuring out your deductions, or musing over the many meanings of spring, have a wonderful equinox (just, please, don't sacrifice anything).

It's tax time!

It’s that time we’ve all been waiting for (especially if we’re looking forward to a refund)- time to do our taxes. We have everything you need to get started at the Sacramento Public Library—free commonly-used forms and publications, reproducible forms and publications, and IRS and Franchise Tax Board reference books. Free forms are located in the lobby near the check-out area, and reference guides are located on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Hurry in while supplies last, or use the Internet to print California forms and federal IRS forms.

Some tax-time pointers:

• Check out J.K. Lasser's your income tax for answers in layman's terms to those tricky tax questions.
• You may qualify to file your taxes for free through the IRS website.
• You can file an amendment within 3 years of the original return.
• Relax, it's just once a year!!