universal experiences as seen by journalists

This being the week before income tax forms are due, I've heard and read the requisite news "humorous human interest" pieces about how nobody likes taxes, and oh they're so complicated, and oh dear aren't CPAs quirky. These stories have always baffled me somewhat, because for most of the people I know, taxes are incredibly simple, especially with free e-filing for anybody on the bottom 2/3 of the income curve. (And that's a conservative estimate.)

Most people I know work one job all year, and taxes are withheld from their paycheck. When tax time comes, they go to a website, fill in their name and the numbers on a form their employer gives them, and they get a lot of that money back most years. Tax time is not particularly sad for them. And it's not like these are mathy people who buckle down and solve complicated intellectual problems for fun.

My taxes are slightly more complicated, because I have to fill in various miscellaneous income from writing I've sold and bug Ciro to forward me the form he gets from the owner of his student loans so I can deduct some of the interest. It takes me maybe an hour. I don't have to do any math, even; the website does it. It then takes me maybe 20 minutes to transfer the info from my federal form to my state income tax form (also free to file online), and to be honest about half of that is me trying to remember my password from last year.

But I realized this year: here is who has a complicated and unpleasant time doing taxes --

1. People with a lot of investment income
2. People I know who own oil wells
3. People who get pretty much all of their income freelance, with no withholding, like a lot of the journalists who write think pieces about how agonizing it is to do taxes.

Guys, it's not a trend or a universal attitude. It's just a side effect of your profession. For 90% of us, tax season is easy.