Worst Timing Ever for a Late Start to Tax Season

 

It's that time again, tax time, and is it just me or does the season start later and later each year? Always an excuse for a late start for one reason or another. Before you know it it's gonna start the following year. 

Honestly, nothing surprises me anymore or would surprise me. But this year with the fumbling of the stimulus all year while many people are suffering cause we're in unprecedented times I was really hoping for tax season to start on time. 

I'm still in disbelief how fast the first stimulus rolled out, then the second one they literally waited till people were about to run out of funding to do something. Why wait till the last minute like that? Don't we teach our children not to procrastinate and wait till the last minute on a project or an important homework assignment? 

And here we are, the government of one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States, dragging its feet waiting till the last minute to help people who are suffering due to no fault of their own - businesses closed, people became homeless, people went hungry, suicides went up, and people died from the virus...what a terrible year. Thank God it's over. I know we were all rooting for the New Year. 

But people are still suffering, so it's not over yet and we're still dealing with this virus and the madness that follows it including the ramifications of social distancing. I was lucky enough to have worked through the pandemic because I've been working from home the past ten years, and my sons all worked through it. Their jobs were essential, but many others weren't so lucky. 

And what about the people who lost time from work because they got sick, or the people who could no longer provide for their families because they died of COVID? How about small business owners who had to close and ended up going bankrupt? Businesses with over 10-30 plus years in business gone because they were forced to shut down, dreams shut down.

No one asked for this. I lost time from work last spring when I had "COVID like" symptoms and literally couldn't sit at my desk because it felt like my lungs were being squished. I was possibly exposed at the end of February when one of my sons had to see a specialist down in New York City twice. And remember, it was rampant down in the city. We were down in the city before we knew it was there sadly.

This was at the beginning of the pandemic and testing wasn't out yet so by the time it was available its accuracy was questionable. I didn't get tested till I was pretty much better and at the end of the illness and tested negative but I've never been so sick in my life. I was sick for seven to eight weeks and my doctor was sure I had it based on my symptoms and what I went through. We were all sick including my asthmatic child; her and I were the worst off but with all of my herbal remedies and healthy teas and foods and smoothies we got better, and a lot of water and rest as well. 

We used her albuterol every four hours during the worst of it for her. That was a nightmare and I've been playing catch up financially ever since and I'm almost caught up. Then in December one of my adult sons tested positive for COVID. But let's not forget if your kids are home schooling cause of the pandemic and you have no childcare or after school program cause you don't want to risk exposing an at risk child this can also affect your earnings. It did mine. I made less working around them. 

Then if anyone has COVID symptoms they have to quarantine and miss work or school. One of my sons actually lost his job of three years because he had to call out for things like that but lucky for him his unemployment was temporary cause he just found a new job after just a month or less on unemployment. Everyone's situation is different though. 

Again, there's those people though that are high risk and don't want to risk their lives for minimum wage, or people that aren't lucky and don't get that second job. My son went on two interviews recently. He didn't get the first interview but didn't give up and went on another interview and landed that one. I raised my kids to not be on the system and to work hard.

So with my son that caught COVID, before he actually had the virus a coworker had it and the entire restaurant closed while it was cleaned and everyone was tested. His first test was negative but then days after his negative test he had symptoms, so watch out for those negative tests. I was exposed to his actual vomit at one point before he isolated outside of the home, and he coughed around all of us at home a few times but because he tested negative we didn't think anything of it. 

When he realized he probably had it he isolated outside of the home and ended up hospitalized for other reasons and that's when he tested positive for COVID and was stuck on that floor of the hospital he was in. Not because he was deathly sick, but because he was there for other reasons but couldn't be on any other floor. So that was a nightmare. Luckily for him it was just like a cold for him but he still doesn't have his sense of smell back and it's been over two months now. 

After he tested positive I thought for sure I'd get it because I handled his vomit and I'm high risk because of health issues I have, and so is my asthmatic daughter, but we didn't get it. I'm so GLAD we didn't get it but considering the paranoia surrounding the virus I was surprised we didn't because we were exposed to his coughing and I cleaned up his vomit. So anyhow, I'm still not taking any chances and I'm careful and obsessive with hand washing, etc. 

So back to the TAXES... After allll of that, this horrid nightmare of a year, I thought to myself, well, since they took so long to move on the stimulus and then after the dragging of the feet and high school theatrics between both parties it was only 600, and then they began to drag their feet on this new promise to add 1400, which is looking like possibly late March (I'm thankful for anything, let me state that) I thought at least those of us that get something back tax time can look forward to that. 

And even though last year it started late that was better than waiting for this next round of stimulus. People could use their returns to get ahead and try and get caught up. But, nope. Later start than last year and it just doesn't make sense to me. And now again waiting till people who are on unemployment run out of their benefits to pass the next stimulus. Why? It just doesn't make sense. 

The only thing that makes sense is that they don't really care about us, either party. Don't be fooled by parties, all the same. People are suffering and it's not right. Some people judge those out of work but what about those who are high risk that can't work from home and usually work with the public, or the paycheck-to-paycheck people who do the best they can without government assistance but don't make enough to save for emergencies but still get by normally when we're not in a pandemic and unprecedented times? 

I noticed a lot of my favorite older ladies that work in the grocery stores I shop in are no longer there. That's just one example of many - hard working older Americans that shouldn't have to risk their lives and aren't. We can say, get a better job, but, no, we can't really say that because if everyone had a better job who would be there to bag our groceries, clean the hotel rooms when we vacation, and serve us in our favorite restaurants? That's just not realistic. Everyone deserves to get by without suffering whether you have a college degree, a trade, or a J-O-B . . . 

With Love,

Carmen