Taxes, taxes, taxes . . .
So, having just received another tax bill from the finanzamt, the Austrian tax authority, I am brooding on what it really means to pay taxes.
In September you may remember our posting that we had to pay a 1,380 Euro bill for the left over taxes from 2009 and then the extra for 201o, well, apparently we owe 321 more Euro for this quarter of 2010, that makes the grand total taxes for 2010 total 1,278.90 Euros/$1,767.36 US. This is all expected from a missionary family of soon-to-be-four living off of $1800 a month, roughly $21,000 yearly. Not to be complaining or saying that the Lord isn’t providing, but we really don’t have the money for this next bill that is due November 15th! Please pray for us throughout this as it is REALLY frustrating to be slammed with yet another financial tax financial cost that was not budgeted and we certainly were not ready for it. Our human minds want to try to explain it away, that it was our error that we didn’t gather all the details that we should have or that we weren’t told about having to pay more . . . the fact remains that we will need to pay it and we have zero extra funds to do so with. Very disheartening stuff.
That all being said, I have been wrestling with alot of this financial stuff lately. The way it worked in the States was that taxes were withheld by the employer and then you had some money with which to pay taxes . . . in our case the entire burden lies with us. We are still trying to work things out but we covet your prayers and continued financial support through all of this. We pray for you guys often and hope that this post doesn’t seem whiny, but rather, hopeful . . . hopeful that we are suffering here as Christ would suffer. I am sure that he would be scraping to make ends meet . . . my only wish is that I would have the peace that Jesus had while on this earth. Bless you guys.
Brian
