Ah, taxes. The time of year when every freelancer gets to question their life choices. Here I am, master of my own fate, captain of my own soul, a worker with the means of production in my hands (if you look at it in the right light and squint). A strong, creative, independent force, surrounded by papers and calculations and spreadsheets, eyes vacant, who is at this minute thinking about putting on a leash and collar, and passing the handle of it to the first person who offers me a W2, health insurance and a retirement fund.
Of course, it’s not just freelancers who use this special time to gaze, transfixed, into the gaping maw of their life choices circumscribed by tax law and societal pressures, we all get that opportunity.
And so, whether you filed in February, filed an extension, are filing right now, or haven’t filed in years because you have a complete psychic breakdown when you think of the overstuffed shoeboxes of records crammed under your bed - here are some toons for us all to enjoy.
-Kendra
Hilary Campbell
Often, taxes force me to question everything I know in this life.
Johnny DiNapoli
I find it weird how whenever someone wins big money on a game show (or lottery or whatever), people always rush to mention how heavily their winnings will be taxed. It’s such a party pooper move. Like, we all know taxes stink on a whole bunch of levels. Just be happy for them! If you go on Wheel of Fortune (which is basically Nationally Televised Loud Hangman), meet Pat Sajak and Vanna White, and earn thousands of dollars in the process— that’s nothing but a win in my book.
Amy Kurzweil
I think money is one of the most confusing creations of our time. Did you know that if you make 40,000 US dollars a year, you’re richer than 97.4% of the world’s population? (Don’t throw tomatoes at me I’m just reciting information from the internet like everyone else). I was recently paid the most per-project money I’ve ever been paid for a project that got canceled, and I’m currently spending 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, on a project for which my hourly rate comes out to be roughly $4.50 an hour. I remember when I was a kid, I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just give money to people who needed it. I thought the grown up answer to this question, like ‘why drink alcohol when it tastes gross’ or ‘why are all the adults just sitting around talking,’ might reveal itself to me one day. But I still don’t understand money no matter how many YouTube videos I watch about Modern Monetary Theory. Hold your tomatoes, I will escort the politics out of the cartoonist newsletter.
Navied Mahdavian
My first job in college was also my first introduction to taxes. I worked in the library and was paid 5 dollars an hour. To be more precise, I was paid 5 dollars an hour to read the Harry Potter series in the library. I’d set the book cart (or book trolley if you’re speaking technical library parlance) just so, to make it look like I was working. Occasionally, I’d mutter something vaguely library worker-ese, like “Dewey Decimal, more like Dumby Decimal” to make it seem like I was hard at work. And hilarious.
In those darkened stacks, I was transported to another world, a world of mysterious and scary things, like Death Eaters and Unforgivable Curses, and worse—like FICA and State Income Tax.
Corey Pandolph
Here's my tax cartoon. It's one of my favs, but sadly never sold. I submitted a lot of zombie gags, but never managed to get one in. I don't think Bob cared much for the undead. Anyway. I loved to draw zombies. And putting them into the mundane situations of everyday life always made me laugh.
You see the gag is, he's already dead, so taxes are his worry now!
I'll show myself out.
BRAAAAINS
Jason Adam Katzenstein
In an earlier draft it was “arson.” I don’t know why it ended up changing to tax evasion, your honor.
The cartoonist rests.
Sofia Warren
It’s Tax Season, if by “tax” you mean “acorn.”
Kendra Allenby
Drawing birds is hard, but for some reason I keep doing it. Doing taxes is hard, but for some reason (fear of a time-consuming, stressful IRS audit, or, you know, jail) I keep doing it.
Thanks for reading, see you next week!
As always…some extra treats.
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And hey, we always would love it if ya:
LOL!! I just this very minute finished filing my taxes, complete with much swearing, complaining, general fussing, and lots of "I don't understand this!!!!" You hit the nails on the head with these toons.