“March Madness” Redefined

Most sports fans look forward to the month we’re in because of “March Madness,” the nickname given to college basketball’s national tournaments.

Not me.

One reason is that I was never that much of a basketball player nor have I been much of a fan. Mostly, I think, because I never learned to dribble well with both hands nor to make a good off-handed lay-up – both skills essential to being even an average player.

For me, “March Madness” is gathering information for preparing income taxes. This is best described as the intense, arduous process of checking every nook and cranny in the house for tidbits of information that affect our tax liability.

Piles of paper pieces materialize through the month, sorted by importance and deductibility. Let’s see, how much did we take to Goodwill? Or give to our church? Or to other benevolences? Will there be enough to exceed the percentage reduction?

You know the drill.

What usually makes it “madness” is the knowledge that you did tax-consequential things last year and not being able to find the paperwork. For the years that I was responsible for filing things, we had a lot of “March Madness”. Fortunately, in recent years my wife has taken charge with dramatic improvements.

Which hopefully means that this year’s “March Madness” will have a little less madness.