Idaho Falls

70 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE APRIL 2020 While maybe not as dramatic as in the old pre-climate change days, this winter was a pretty good one for those nostalgic of how things used to be. While the volume of snowfall was certainly of sufficient quantity to put a smile on the farmer's faces, we were fortunate not to get locked into the month-long sub-zero deep freezes of the past. Nostalgia is a funny thing. Even things that at the time were horrible, we somehow trick ourselves into looking back at fondly. Given that it is April, the one thing that probably nobody looks back at fondly is paying taxes. I'm no big fan of taxes - either paying them or having to figure them out. I under- stand that taxes are needed to run our government at all its different levels, but that still doesn't mean I have to love them. To me, the best taxes are the ones that are included that you don't even realize are there. If you were to remove federal and state sales taxes from our gas, each gallon would be about fifty-one cents cheaper. Now to be fair, that tax money goes to providing us with our excellent roads...oh, bad example. But I'm sure they would be even worse without tax money. Just think how many fewer roundabouts we would have without fuel taxes. Getting back to paying taxes. Interestingly, gas taxes are incorporated into the posted price, but for things like liquor, the price you pay is not what is on the sticker. In addition to the 6% Idaho sales tax, there is also the $10.95 per gal- lon excise tax that is heaped on top. For gas tax, Idaho is right about in the middle of the pack. Our liquor is tenth highest in the Here Comes the Tax Man BY GREGG LOSINSKI country. Our neighbors in Wyoming, on the other hand, are one of the few states with no tax on liquor. Might explain why Alpine is such a busy place. But the worst tax of all is the one that the government lets you decide how much that you should pay. That is like giving a person a hatchet and asking them to decide how many fingers they would like to chop off their hand. The traditional method of por- ing over endless forms and schedules and calculating numbers from piles of receipts was and still is sadistic. Each time you sub- tract one line from another or add the sum of X to Y you envision losing another finger. Yet the government expects you to be hon- est and gladly lop off another digit. Because we all loathe doing our taxes, we do anything possible to avoid them. If we owe, then we certainly don't pay them until April 15th. Over the years I have done my taxes in a variety of ways. I've done the paper version, the PC version, and even paid an accountant to do them. This year, quite by accident, I did them on my smart- phone. It happened when I tried to access a W-2 that I had received via email. Opening the email link triggered an app that import- ed my tax data from last year and asked me if I'd like to do my taxes. Thinking I would probably get bogged down but that it might be interesting to at least try, I began. About 45 minutes later I had completed and filed my state and federal taxes with very little effort. Sure, I had to run and find a few forms, but a majority of what I needed was already on my phone! It was both satisfying and scary. While I'm sure I'll never be nostalgic about paying taxes, I hope I never look back and say, "I remember when we didn't have a 90% tax rate!" After all, how many traffic circles do you need? IF

• Cover