Put Off Doing Your Taxes

I suppose it's usually good advice to get started on doing your taxes early, although personally I never do.  This year, I've got a few good excuses not to do my taxes early.  For one thing, the deadline for yearly federal income taxes has been pushed back 2 days to April 17.  Woo hoo! It has to do with an obscure local holiday in Washington, D.C., but I don't really care what the reason is as long as I get a couple extra days to procrastinate.  Secondly, the IRS, bless its bureaucratic heart, isn't actually going to be able to process some early returns this year (see link), so some eager filers will just have to wait.  My third good excuse comes from astrology. 

Since the middle of 2005, Saturn in Leo has been in a series of recurring arguments with Neptune in the opposite of sign of Aquarius over such weighty topics as the nature of reality.  This may not seem like it has much to do with taxes, but there is nothing more coldly realistic than tax forms, and therein lies the problem (or, er, I mean the excuse for putting off doing my taxes). 

Here's the deal. Neptune, the mighty planet of confusion, is heading for an all-out confrontation with Saturn, the conscientious planet that actually believes that humans should prepare their tax forms dutifully and well in advance, scrupulously taking all allowable deductions (to the penny) and no more.  Neptune's getting a bit tired of Saturn's nit-picky insistence on following the rules and regulations. He's tired of Saturn's emphasis on realistic planning, and he's likely to indicate his displeasure by making attempts to do one's taxes during the confrontation period very very confusing. 

This should be a piece of cake for Neptune, given that even under the best of circumstances, federal tax forms can be pretty darn confusing. At least they are to me.  This year, they're probably going to be even more confusing for some folks, because Congress waited until the last possible minute to make some changes to the tax laws.  (Congress is apparently a procrastinator, too.) Even the IRS is likely to be confused for a bit as to how to integrate the relatively new laws into its system, given that it had conscientiously printed up tax forms before the laws were passed. (Congress, not suprisingly, plays the confusing role of Neptune in this drama, while the IRS is stern old Saturn.) Even your tax preparer may be a bit confused, and so may your software (check for the latest updates before you prepare your forms). 

To add another wrinkle to this minor astrological dust-up, Neptune happens to be the planet of deception, which doesn't bode well for people who like to fudge things a bit on their taxes. Neptune is all in favor of fudging away, but when Saturn gets involved by opposition, the chances go up somewhat that he'll have the last laugh and that the stern old IRS will flag those questionable deductions and put deceptive folks through the harrowing process of dealing with the government bureaucracies that Saturn loves. I personally am not even going to think about those questionable deductions until these two planets have called off their argument.   

To add to the mix, Mercury is retrograde from the middle of February through the first week of March.  Lots of people think Mercury retrograde causes havoc with paperwork-related matters to begin with and double havoc with paperwork filed electronically.  I don't personally happen to believe this, but I'm not above seizing upon it as yet another reason to put off even looking at my tax forms until the 2nd week of March.  By then, Neptune and Saturn will have decided to stop arguing for awhile, and we can all go back to pretending that we understand our taxes. 

So that's the target date for the astrologically-minded, the second week of March.  By then the IRS, the tax preparers, and the software makers will presumably have figured out how to iron out any glitches in their systems, and doing one's taxes will return to its normal state of chaos and confusion rather than an abnormal state of even greater chaos and confusion. 

In the greater scheme of things, this is a relatively minor point.  After all, delaying our tax preparation until the 2nd week of March isn't a huge stretch for a lot of us.  But I bring it up because this clash between confusion and realism happens to be on my mind because I'm watching it play out in front of me these days. 

You see, an aspect like this Saturn/Neptune opposition is a global aspect between two transiting planets. It isn't taking aim at any one individual, and so, if it has an effect at all, it's likely to affect large-scale enterprises (like the IRS). 

The clash between Saturn and Neptune has been playing out most prominently in the US in the current debate over the war in Iraq.  Congress (and to some extent the American public) have been playing the role of stern Saturn, demanding realistic signs of progress in a war that has seemed ruled by the Neptunian forces of chaos, confusion, deception, idealism, and misplaced optimism almost since its inception.    

But the aspect has been playing out closer to home for me as I've watched two companies I've been involved with struggle frantically with the confusion/realism dilemma.  These two companies happened to negotiate a contract during the last Neptune/Saturn argument in the fall of last year, and they've been battling the two energies ever since. One company plays the role of Neptune, propagating confusion over the terms of the contract with blithe abandon, while the other company plays the role of Saturn, repeatedly and sternly telling the first company that some expectations are just not realistic.  They still haven't figured out what to do about the clash of perspectives. 

This is the sort of thing that bemuses me.  Sometimes I'm inclined to think that we astrologers make too much of every little planetary event, attributing grandiose effects to things that just don't produce them.  Then I watch a predictable astrological dilemma play out in front of my eyes as though according to script, and I think to myself "well, maybe I will be a little more careful with my taxes this year. Probably couldn't hurt."

And so I'll leave you with these thoughts to take or leave as you please:  Don't tempt the gods of confusion in February in any matters, personal or professional, that are important to you.  Steer clear of involving yourself in projects or conflicts that are already confusing enough to begin with (including family conflicts), and just wait the darn argument out.  Be careful when dealing with anything that requires cold-eyed realism and attention to rules and regulations and don't plan on getting away with fudging things. This advice may not help...but it probably couldn't hurt.