TAXing!

If you are working and generating some income, you are supposed to report your income and pay your income tax, minus the deductions that you are entitled to. It's relatively simple and straightforward if you are an employee working full time at one company, because the company's accountants will already automatically deduct the taxes that you are supposed to pay.

The scenario is a little different if you are a self employed individual or a freelancer. It's pretty difficult sometimes to know all the rules and to keep track of the new rules being set by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, unless you happen to be an accountant yourself (and are therefore supposed to be up-to-date with all those tax rules). To simplify my life, I just hire my own tax accountant and just submit my income and other related papers to him, so that he will be the one to organize everything and make sure that I pay the correct taxes and thus avoid incurring penalties. That has made my life so much easier. Before that, I used to scratch my head every time I have to submit some form and wonder what I'm supposed to include. Now I do not have to.