hear the army

FINALLY – i am rewarded for trying to follow the rules and be an honest, upstanding citizen! most of my adult life has been spent with various friends wondering why i bother to try and follow the rules, etc. when there are lots of ways around them that could save me hassle & money. what on earth could possess me to be honest on various applications just to pay more in the end, etc? sometimes, they were probably right but most of the time i liked to think i was fighting the good fight – if no one took advantage then everyone would end up paying less in the long run, etc.

in japan i’ve followed this motto mostly due to the “one bad apple spoils the bunch” theory. i didn’t want to be that gaijin (foreigner), you know? so, when my naivety left me with a $600 city tax bill to pay a few weeks before i left the country in 2004, i paid it. when i read online that you are supposed to file your taxes even if not working in the US and living abroad, i did the ridiculous paperwork that’s only purpose was to end up zeroing out everything in the end with an amendment saying all of it was foreign earned income. friends thought i was nuts. i started to think i was nuts.

but this year the IRS smiled upon me – i just received $300 in the mail merely for doing the right thing. had i neglected to file the useless paperwork this year – i would’ve gotten nothing! haha – i’m not even paying US taxes! free money!

so there – sometimes it really does pay to do the right thing. not to worry fellow americans – i always infuse the economy thanks to the internet and mail order!