Shoe Shopping and Tax Preparation

I had a tough Friday at work. Could not go out to eat for lunch. Luckily I had some old Popeye's chicken I could munch on. After work, I had arranged to go shoe shopping with Little Kat. I told him I was ready to go once work was over. He said we should wait until the exact time we had arranged. So I grabbed a hot dog and waited.

I was getting tired of waiting. So Little Kat agreed to leave a bit early. The traffic was bad. We went to Payless. Little Kat could not find any shoes with non-slip soles. The attendant overheard him and showed him how to tell which ones were non-slip. We also picked up some shiny fancy square front dress shoes.

On the way home, Little Kat complained that he had to drive everywhere. I told him if he started paying for some items, somebody else could pick up the driving task. We stopped by Little Caesars because Momoko wanted some bacon wrapped pizza. There was a new employee working there. She told us they no longer had that pizza. At least we got the pizza with the pretzel crust plus some bread sticks.

After dinner, Little Kat tried to fill out his tax forms for work. He asked Momoko for help. Momoko asked me to help him. I explained the ideas behind the tax code so that Little Kat could comprehend the answers he needed to put down. Afterwards, I told him I would charge him for the tax advice. He said he was broke. So instead, I told him he could drive me to Steak and Shake and buy me dinner.

Little Kat invoked the principle that you got to prearrange your compensation if you want to get paid. Seeing how I did not prearrange, he was not going to pay me back for the tax prep help. Since it was true we all try to live by the prearrange principle, I did not collect any fee for my tax advice. But I did prearrange him to pay me rent for the rest of the month.

Little Kat said he could have filled out the tax forms with the help of the Internet, Google, and YouTube. I thought that was a joke since he did not understand much of the verbiage such as the word "domiciled". But I said he might be right. I asked him to fill out a state and federal tax return assuming he would make $2k this year. If he could do that, then I would agree that all he needs is the Internet.

If Little Kat cannot fill out the form, then that shows that even with Internet assistance, there are some tasks that are beyond his ability. In that case, I am going to have him shop around and find out who can professionally provide tax advice, and have him find out how much it costs him. I got a feeling it is going to be a lot more than the cost of a cheeseburger and shake. A lot more.

Little Kat has learned the lesson of prearrangement. But it seems he also has lost sight of the free ride he has been getting in the house. He has a car to use. And he has auto insurance provided. He has a gas card he does not have to pay. Plus all the clothes he ever needs. I could go on.