Tax Return

Well, this is the first comment on culture, how about that! So, since tax day is about a month away, I shall muse on taxes. For those of you who have not yet completed them, I would encourage you to do so. It is for your own good (even if the government may not necessarily know how to properly spend their yearly allowance).

I am a creative writing student, so I take creative writing classes. Thus far I have only taken fiction writing courses, but someday dream of taking non-fiction prose classes (certainly not poetry). Today I had my intermediate creative writing class, and we were being creative and brainstorming all sorts of documents and texts that one could place in a short story to create a metatext or intertext. My instructor (who bears a strong resemblance to Doofus from Ducktales, but is overall a neat fella) suggested a Tax Return but then mused on how that would not make for an interesting story. How wrong you are, instructor!

I have a very interesting and recurring experience with my tax return check! Sure, being a young part-time/seasonal worker of low paying, low hour jobs I never make much money, but that does not seem to stop the government from fiddling with my taxes. Every year papabear Wade fills out my forms (even though I took a finance class in high school that involved filling out tons of practice forms--I remember nothing from that experience other than Scott Barnez [who could forget such a fella]) in his legible print with a fine point black ink pen. I sign and date all the parts necessary to a complete form. I always file months in advance, but every year there is the same error on my tax return check.

The department of the Treasury sends my check to the correct address with all the correct little numbers for my parents' house, the street spelled accurately as well as the full town and the zipcode. However, each year on the top line of my address, the name the check is made out to is not mine. The unimpressive sum of money that the government gives back to me each year is made out to someone by the name of Carrie G Ware (I am Carrie G Wade). The first time it happened we went to the bank and all I had to do was endorse the check twice (once as Carrie G Ware and again as Carrie G Wade), but the same thing happens every year. It's silly that I clearly file as Carrie G Wade but get a check for Carrie G Ware. Every year I laugh at the absurdity of life in this form. That even with computers to do their work the government has proven itself to be repeatedly fallible. I always wonder what would happen if I failed to file my taxes. The IRS might come looking for Carrie G Ware, and I could say "Who is this person?" because all of my identification is for Carrie G Wade.

So see, you can make an interesting story out of a Tax Return. That's my cultural commentary today. Never say that something is too boring for fiction, or does not accurately represent life, because the chances are that something will happen to disprove you.