When I’ve talked about honoring boundaries in the past, I’ve typically talked about honoring others’ boundaries and respecting their limitations: not asking of them more than they can viably provide; not seeking bread from stones or fruits out of season.
I’ve not talked as much about honoring my own boundaries and respecting my own limits.
This year, honoring my limits looks like outsourcing tax return preparation and filing an extension for my business property taxes.
Taxation of business property is one of the funding streams for local government in Maryland, and license fees and assessments pay for roads and fire services in my county. I’m happy to pay for those things every spring. I just don’t have the bandwidth to do it this week.
So, for the first time ever, I’m taking the option to file later.1
This weekend I turned over my documents, receipts, and income and expense summary spreadsheets I organized myself. By June, the accountant will have caught up, I’ll have put aside the money for the license renewal and assessed taxes, and most of Earth won’t have noticed.
This won’t always work, I know.
Life includes hard deadlines as well as boundaries with elastic in the waist, and sometimes it’s much more burdensome to defer an activity or report than it is to breathe deeply and submit on time.
But part of honoring oneself is learning the difference.
Sleep is a good thing.
File that extension.
- First things first: I’m not a tax advisor. I’m someone who’s tired.
Secondly, for state and federal taxes, extensions allow you to delay submitting the return. They don’t allow you to delay settling up, so you’ll still need to do the work to estimate your bill and pay if you happen to owe.
May the odds be ever in your favor. [Back to text: ◄]
