My first income statement

Well, hello! Long time no blog but, as you can see, I'm still here!

I had another one of those days when the Big B shoved it's nose into my business once again. (Did I tell you about the time that I sent an email from my personal Gmail account to an acquaintance on my professional network and for some reason my mail server decided to use my GirlBankrupted account? Eeek! I try not to think about it…) However, I digress, because what I wanted to tell you about was my income declaration. 

A form arrived in the mail asking me to declare my income for the past two years. Nothing too scary, just a copy of my last two payslips, tax returns etc. I had to provide information about my employer, which happens to be my parents. My income for the period was so damn low that I am a little nervous they are going to want to come in and audit us to see if I am laundering my lifestyle through the family business. Not only that, I now have nearly $8,000 saved in my First Home Buyers account and, even though the Trustee assured me that anything I saved after declaring Bankruptcy is mine to keep, I live in fear they will take it away. Maybe a little irrational but being bankrupt makes me feel like everything I do is somehow reprehensible. (Just in case you're wondering, I've saved that $8,000 by direct debiting $60 per week for nearly three years.)

So I was pretty clear in my own mind on the evidence I needed to collect and I filled the form out straight away and put it in my in-tray to complete at some later date prior to 4 April 2013.

I suddenly remembered it yesterday and, in breathless panic, dug it out of my in-tray and there on the first page it states "failure to provide income declaration will result in 6-months prison" or something equally as sphincter shrivelling. I rang the information line and affected my perkiest demeanour to ask for an extension. The kind person on the other end sent an email to the relevant department and about half an hour later I received an email with the following message:

"In regards to the return of your Statement of Income, generally, extensions are not granted. At the latest, please submit the documents by 29 April 2013"

Phew! Imagine making it this close to discharge and ending up in gaol because I can't organise my paperwork!!! Honestly, it's times like this that I think I deserve to be bankrupt. What a fool!