Numbers

I used to have a head for numbers. No particular aptitude, mind you, but enough to get by in doing my own tax returns, and keeping my checkbook balanced, that sort of thing. I've run my own business, even done my own bookkeeping. And I'm good at following directions. That usually helps.

It was today, however, when faced with the task of filling out a new set of W-4 forms, that I began to wonder if all that had come to an unexpected end. (The "following directions" part, too.) I must have filled out that worksheet — you know, the one that's supposed to help you determine how many exemptions to claim? — I must have filled out that worksheet three or four times, and somehow I kept arriving at the conclusion that I ought to claim something like 24 or 25 exemptions.

I tried again, this time without itemizing deductions (even though we undoubtedly will be), with the hope that following the simple route might make more sense. It didn't — but at least this time I was only claiming six or seven exemptions.

In the end, I gave up and just went with one less than whatever we decided to go with the last time we had to fill these forms out. (We had a bad, bad year for taxes last year, and we're hoping to blunt the ill effects this year as much as possible.)