5 Reasons to Love the IRS

It’s tax time. The filing deadline is this week for those who don’t opt for an extension. How many people have you heard cursing the IRS in the past month? I’ve lost count.

So here for your contemplative pleasure are five reasons to love the IRS.

1. People

The IRS is an organization like any other. If you work in a corporate setting, you work in a place similar to the Internal Revenue Service. The people who work for Internal Revenue are just like you and me. This is their tough time of the year. They merit our blessings.

2. Life Review

This may not be a reality for everyone, but when I do my taxes, I look at it as a yearly review. Seeing where and how I spend my financial resources is an opportunity to calculate the value I received or gave. Itemizing your taxes means you look at everything you did in the past year on a fiscal level, and thereby on a life review level. Enjoy it!

3. Moral Check-In

Do you think of yourself as an honest person? Doing your taxes tests your mettle. How honest are you? I think it’s only human nature to want to get away with something in the face of the faceless Internal Revenue Service. Do what you will, but know too that yours is the only face you have to look in the mirror every day.

4. Order

Filling out your accountant’s prep form or your own tax return requires an orderly mind. You have to pay attention so that you don’t make a mistake. Years ago, I was careless on one form and ended up in a three-year audit. It was my own mistake! Tax time asks for presence and an attention to detail that only helps you.

5. Completion

When I’m done with my accountant’s form, there are only three more steps: receive the completed tax forms, write the checks and mail them. There are very few processes in life that go from beginning to middle to end in a timely fashion. Completion is good for you. It’s a feeling of accomplishment, a job done, if not well done.

It never fails to amuse me that tax time is scheduled near Crucifixion time in the Christian Calendar. Instead of viewing tax time as crucifixion itself, why not consider it the prelude to Resurrection—surely the whole point of the Christian story.

Visit Susan Corso's spiritual blog or subscribe to Seeds at www.susancorso.com.