50+ Lifestyles

It’s April. Do You Know Where Your Tax Return Is?

By David W. Deuth, CFSP
President, Weerts Funeral Home

I think it usually goes something like this: If you expect a refund from the IRS, you file your tax return just as blazing fast as you can possibly once you have all of your W-2s and 1099s and such; and, if you owe money back to the IRS, you’ll wait to file until April 15th.

Either way, most everyone knows that they have to submit their tax return one way or another – and that there are consequences if they don’t.

OK, submitting one’s tax return has next to nothing to do with pre-planning, I’ll grant you that. Nevertheless, more than one corollary could be considered between the two.

Let’s consider a few similarities:

• Arguably, both are unavoidable. Indeed, the pundits have portrayed the two as such for centuries!
• Likely, few look forward to doing either. Procrastination rates are high for both.
• Accomplishing either yields a certain peace of mind.
• Avoiding either yields a certain consequence.

Now for a few differences:

• Tax returns are filed because the consequence is obvious and often costly to the taxpayer.
• Pre-planning is often overlooked because the consequence of unpreparedness is never paid by the “taxpayer”, if you will, but rather by the people they care the most about.
• Although most people don’t enjoy preparing tax returns and paying the taxes they owe, they do so, if even begrudgingly so, because they know they must. Paying taxes owed is required.
• Likewise, few people enjoy thinking about or discussing funeral matters. So they simply do nothing…because, quite frankly, doing nothing is an option. Pre-planning is not required.

For those still cramming for the final exam of their tax return, there will perhaps be a few who have a neatly organized file drawer of all the documentation necessary to complete their return in the 11th hour. There may be others with a disheveled shoebox full of receipts and crumpled up papers who can throw something together at the last minute and, although incomplete, trust it will be enough to “make it work.” And there will be some who will simply do nothing until the IRS forces them to act with penalties and garnishments and fines.

Similarly, some leave neatly organized information for their family to complete their “final exam” at the close of their life; those families will know exactly what to do when that time comes. Some will leave a disheveled shoebox with a few things inside which, although incomplete, will give their family enough “to make it work.”
And there will be those who will do nothing to pre-plan simply because they don’t have to.  Their families will start from square one on one of the worst days of their lives…simply because they will be left no other choice.

So do you know where your tax return is? If you haven’t filed it yet, it’s time to get busy! If you have already filed your return, you can read this and enjoy the great feeling that comes with knowing you’re done well ahead of time. That’s peace of mind.

Can you say the same for your pre-arrangement?

Remember Well.

David W. Deuth, CFSP, is a funeral director and the owner of Weerts Funeral Home in Davenport and RiverBend Cremation and Quad Cities Pet Cremation in Bettendorf. He can be
reached via email at Dave@WeertsFH.com or by phone at (563) 424.7055.