The most wonderful time of the year

It’s the end of Australia’s financial year. Tomorrow, many Australians will be receiving the so-called “Stage 3” income tax cuts, and I get to get started on my tax return.

I’m annoyed by taxes as much as the next person, but I’m generally content paying taxes as a side effect of the privelige of being able to work full-time in an interesting job that pays me enough money for a comfortable life.

More importantly, I’m very happy to pay my taxes, knowing that (most) Australians have easy access to cheap healthcare and cheap education.

To be honest, I don’t need this tax cut, but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to getting it. It will help with the work that I need to do to my house to make it the place that I be happy to live the rest of my life in.

I also need to get serious about philanthropy, but working out which charities to give money to has always been a struggle for me. There are a lot of charities covering a lot of different things, each with different approaches and different levels of efficacy.

I used to give regularly to a charity that then took it upon itself to call me regularly, asking me to increase my donations. Spending my donation on staff who call me to ask me to donate more is the best way to piss me off.

Money isn’t the only thing to donate. I regularly donate blood plasma. I should blog about it, but today’s the last day of #blogjune! I made it! I didn’t post every day, but there is a post for every day. That’s better than I’ve ever done in the past.