You have to take up the tax before you pull up the carpet.

I never have any luck with tax. I always just break even, except for the one year that my employer didn't withold money for HECS, and I had to pay a year's worth in one lump sum. I was living on my own at the time, and I was devastated, but I made it happen. Surely, this would never occur again?

Heh, never say never. This year I had a firm idea of which bracket I was within, and planned my budgets as such. So I'm plugging all of my data into the Etax programme, and it was telling me that I would get a tidy amount back. Then, I entered the amount relating to the payout I received when leaving Fabcorp. This was more than enough to push me over to the next bracket. The tidy credit became a terrifying debt of several thousand dollars.

Tears were stinging my eyes, I was so upset. Sure, I have savings, but of course they're allocated to the engagement party, the plastic surgery I want to have done, and the wisdom teeth I should have removed soon. Not to mention the actual wedding, and the fact that I like to have some left over for a rainy day.

Stu was by my side when all this happened, and without hesitation he offered "You can have my tax return". Now, his return was equally commensurate to the debt I'd just incurred, so that would have been the perfect solution. But I couldn't possibly take his hard earned money, he deserves each and every cent (and then some). Though this showed me once more how much of an angel Stu is, so generous, so loving.

Luckily, I'd not yet entered my deductions. Thank goodness for charitable donations - including those, I ended up a hair's breath beneath the threshold.
Crisis averted, and I will now be the happy recipient of $57.