may is tax month in taiwan, so today i went to the tax office and did my taxes. doing taxes is dead simple. for one thing the tax form is one page long. the forms are bilingual(english and chinese) and they have people on hand who speak english to help out us clueless foreigners. to make things even better, today i managed to get everything done in about 15 minutes. for some reason there weren't very many people there. i usually try to file as early as i can, but every year something seems to come up making that difficult. but regardless when i get that postcard in the mail telling me to come pick up my refund i'll be a happy man.

eventhough i pay taxes in taiwan, i still have to file taxes in the states. it's pretty silly. i file a regular form, along with another form to prove that i don't have to pay. i've heard that in new zealand once you leave the country you don't have to file again until you come back. a few years ago there was some politician in the states trying to make it so those of us that work and live abroad would have to pay taxes twice. once in the states and once in the country we are working in. luckily nothing really came of that proposal.