organisation for tax filling

Tax reporting has always been a struggle and brainf*ck for me. I hate it with a real passion; I’m happy for the state to take money and use it for the common good, including mine (i feel like healthcare, schools and culture are kind of part of priorities in life), it’s just the hassle and amount of work it represents that brings me to tears and despairs. Total yearly mental collapse usually ending in good vibes and joy after the dreaded meeting with my accountant. It’s true I’m terrible at it — but this year is the second year I’m re-using an old trick to make it fun: turn it into a project. And this text is here to report: the fun part worked, no mental collapse to report.

I use 3 essentials elements; building and organising each of these elements led me to swallow the pain with a smile:

• a home-brewed command line set of scripts; Afonso one day shown me his system and i felt in love instantly and tried to replicate it ever since.
• a set of markdown files in Obsidian to log expenses, and prepare reports.
• a drop-in folder for every invoices I received, I process them and fill them for the year and log them in the markdown document above, either weekly or monthly (depending on the quantity there is to fill).

Command Line I can record an invoice as a structured record of data into a JSON file; this way I preserve data and can edit or query it later. I also can generate a pdf from the record, to eventually send to my clients. Every year I can then query the JSON file, to prepare tax filling for my income; it handles multiple currencies and TPS/TVQ.

Markdown file That is where I can record context for the expenses and prepare for the filling of my accountant’s forms. I use the dataview plugin to make small calculations embed in the notes - no need for spreadsheets, the calculation is embed in the context is embed in the note is embed in the thinking. That totally matches my way of thinking. I use headings to create sections and quick navigation, templates and frontmatter with extra shortcuts. I love typing and I love even more my keyboard — did i ever tell you about my ortholinear deep crush?

Filesystem A simple drop folder where i just drop all files coming my way; weekly/monthly review: record the invoice in the obsidian log when i processed them — did i buy anything? save the invoice, record it in details with context, file it. It’s the first time i realise the “file system” expression within an OS context has a meaning that predates computer: it’s a filing system. It gets me every time when I’m made to remember computers are tools to automate tasks that were done manually, with paper, before. That’s part of my computing history obsessions and teaching — what the task was like before, what different solutions were explored, what’s the solution that sticked and why, what can we learn from history and past experiments to push these further, reconsider status quo; the aim is to explore, discover and create! Who would have thought that tax-filling would lead here!

To the question that might arise to anyone landing here: why not use XXX software — like Daniel Nordh said a little while back: build your own tools.

Worth noting that the first entry in this creative coding simple journal enterprise is about tax-filling; it’s about time i grow up :)