While this is kind of cute I guess, I have serious doubts an actual goddess would require taxes, a bureaucracy and a pony equivalent of an IRS. What happens if someone can’t pay, is there a pony debtor’s dungeon in the castle?
@mathprofbrony
Yeah, Rarity probably finished hers a while ago. I think this is Rarity doing Applejack’s taxes, because AJ waited until the last moment to finally give up trying to do it herself and ask for help.
Aw, that is a sweet interpretation and makes considerable sense.
“Heh… funny story ‘bout that barn. We shouldn’t be havin’ so much trouble in the future now that we moved the site. Turns out it was sittin’ on an ancient Buffalo burial ground.”
“Really? How ancient?”
“Uh… how much do you know about the foundin’ of Ponyville, again?”
“Applejack, why is all your income recorded as ‘About half a chest o’ bits’ or such each day, and how in the world did you build fourteen barns last year?”
“No, I don’t believe there is a section for losses incurred from temporary identity confusion causing one of your friends to try to run your business for a day.”
“I’m sorry, but I think you need to be more specific than ‘That gosh-darn batpony ate all my apples!’ to deduct that unfortunate incident.”
@mathprofbrony
Yeah, Rarity probably finished hers a while ago. I think this is Rarity doing Applejack’s taxes, because AJ waited until the last moment to finally give up trying to do it herself and ask for help.
Aw. I can see Applejack waiting to do the family’s taxes that long because she probably doesn’t like math. But Rarity seems organized enough that she’d be more on the ball with it.
Clearly they need Twilight’s help.
By the way, if you’re running late on taxes, it’s easy to file for a short-term extension, which is almost always approved. You send in an estimated payment and work out the proper value within a few weeks.
Technically, estimated taxes are due every quarter. That is, the actual money has to be sent in over the course of the year. For most people who earn salaries and have their income tax deducted, this is invisible, while businesses make estimated quarterly tax payments.
By April 15th of next year you have to have gone through the paperwork and determined your actual taxes due for the year. At that point you will usually have been off by a bit, and either owe a small amount or be due a small refund. The reason people often get money handed back to them at tax time is that they’ve been making the payments already.
This is very useful for the government, which gets a much steadier stream of income than if it had to collect all its tax revenues in one enormous chunk once a year. It’s also useful for people, who, let’s face it, are not universally wise savers, and would often be short the funds for a several-thousand-dollar tax bill that they owed for all of last year.
I would say this is why I file as soon as I get my W2 but then I remember that AJ and Rarity run their own businesses and business taxes are a nightmare made true in paper form. I don’t even want to think about AJ’s property tax either.
By the way aren’t business Taxes not due on the First of January? I’m pretty sure that’s how it goes in the Food Service Industry (From what I’ve seen of it the World over!). In as far as that you have to Submit a complete Inventory of your Stock before December the 29th IIRC. I’m fairly sure that’s how it was when I lived in the USoA, and its more or less the same here in Germany too…