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Seems as though the IRS is giving people an extra day this year to get their Federal taxes in due to Emancipation Day in Washington, DC., as well as “Patriots Day” in Massachusettes.

However, mostly just those States which actually observe Patriots Day have that same extra day extension on their State taxes (Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington DC., I believe).

So, for most of the rest of us, that means that the extra day for Federal taxes doesn’t mean a whole lot since we have to complete our Federal taxes in order to submit our State taxes!!

Be sure to check with your State’s taxing organization, however.  I just checked the California Franchise Tax Board, and they extended their due date to Tuesday, April 17, also.

Along with our wonderful vacation to Australia and New Zealand, I postponed taxes until we returned.  Now I’m hot in the middle of them so I can be finished this weekend!!

Now I’m not an advocate of taxation, which is mostly a redistribution of wealth.  I am a free market capitalist and I dislike anything that punishes people for being productive.  And I am not happy about how and where my tax dollars are spent.  I would prefer to pay for what I use, and I dislike the majority of the money going to the middleman, even though I realize I’m one of those middlemen.

So, where is my gratitude, here?  Well first of all, as my dear husband always says, “I’ll take all the 70-cent dollars I can get!”  I am grateful to have made enough money to have a tax bill to pay (although I expect to get a return on the total taxes we have already paid during the year).

And then, our family in New Zealand still receive some U.S. paychecks, so they have the privilege of being taxed twice!!  So I am also grateful to not have to pay double taxes on the money we make each year.

And finally, I am paying back some money I pulled out of retirement years ago when I left my job with the State of California.  And, I am fortunate enough to be able to make those payments (plus all the in-between interest) on a pre-tax basis.  So I am grateful for a system that lets me postpone the taxation on that portion of my income that I am reinvesting.

By the way, I am also grateful that I have been doing my own taxes for so many years and still pretty much understand most of the requirements.  But I’m even more grateful for TurboTax and the time it saves me!!

Good luck to us all, and if you’re burning the midnight oil this weekend, think of me, I’ll be thinking of you!!  Oh, and of course I’m grateful to the FTB (just in case I’m not done on Sunday, I’ll have one more day to complete my forms and get them in!!).