Have You Kept Track?

Now that the annual bloodletting is over and done with, and Caesar has extracted what was his due —and then a wee bit more—I can get back to worrying about my finances and sanity. While my perennially anaemic finances pose no problem, I frequently lose my temper because of the threatening messages that I receive, especially around the time of filing my income tax return.

- K.C. VERMA

The initial irritation is caused by the innumerable reminders to file the return. They come as warnings through different channels— email, WhatsApp and SMS. They threaten to heap unspeakable ignominies on me if I do not file the return, but then they end in the whimper that the threat can be ignored if I have already made the mandatory genuflections. Each such message causes a twinge of regret— obviously, those income tax blighters have not been keeping track of my tax declaration. Ergo, they have also not kept track of the tax paid by me. Am I a sucker for having paid it in the first place?