The Tax Return I Really Didn’t Want to Open

This time of year, is “tax” season in Norway and it’s when the tax office lets you know that your tax return for the previous year is ready for checking.

You receive a notification it is available, you log in and you check whether you have more tax to pay or get a tax rebate.

I’ve yet to meet anyone who knows with certainty before opening their tax return whether they’ll be smiling or crying by the time they reach the bottom of the page

Having been a small business owner for a couple of decades, I’ve had an ongoing love hate relationship with my tax return. Early in my entrepreneurial journey I had absolutely no idea what my tax would be and left everything up to the accountant. I would just wait for them to tell me how much I owed and hope with fingers tightly crossed that I had enough saved up.

But over the years I have had a real mixed bag of accountants with one really mucking up and causing me to get a hefty fine from the tax office and another not invoicing me for so long that after I had chased them many times I ended up with an invoice of nearly £2000!

Not ideal!

I had also been super avoidant of handling my own finances for my business but a few years ago I’d had enough and I used EFT tapping to help me work through my blocks. That process eventually led me to take over my own accounting using a simple and reasonably cost-effective accounting programme.

Anyway, fast forward to today and I got the message that my tax return was ready for review and suddenly I got this familiar ball of fear in my stomach. I knew instantly that I was going to do whatever possible to avoid looking at the return.

What would it say, would I have paid enough advance tax, or would I be looking at 1000’s in extra tax?

It’s funny how the mind works like that. Creating worst case scenarios!

Often it isn’t the task itself that feels overwhelming — it’s the anticipation of it.

And it’s the stories we create about what might happen that can feel far more stressful than the reality of dealing with actually just checking the tax return.

The interesting thing is that now I am doing my own accounts for my business, I check regularly that what I expect to earn matches the amount of tax I am paying.

But last year I separated from my husband, and I knew that would have financial implications for my tax return.

Maybe that was why I was dreading opening the return.

So instead of avoiding it, I sat with it for a bit and connected with what I was feeling within my body and what the thoughts were in my head.

Because I’ve been using EFT for so long, I find it relatively easy to connect with what I’m feeling. Within moments I could name what was there.

I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote it down:

*Ball of tension

*In my stomach

*Fear

*Looking at my tax return

*What if I haven’t paid enough

Then I started tapping through the EFT points using those words as my script, simply saying out loud what I had written.

I had also rated it as an 8 out of 10 discomfort level.

As I tapped, I wouldn’t say I noticed a dramatic shift, but that wasn’t what I was aiming for.

When I tap on daily discomforts like this, I am aiming to make just enough change that I take action.

My goal is not to get to zero out of ten.

My goal is simply to make enough of a shift that I take action.

To move from “I’m definitely not opening that tax return” to “maybe I could open it.”

Sometimes the difference needed is tiny.

Sometimes it’s the difference of 0.05% that gets me taking action.

I literally tapped two rounds and then a friend called and I got distracted, and by the end of the call I had to leave for work. And I put the tax return to the back of my mind. It wasn’t a “discomfort” anymore, because it just wasn’t present in my mind.

But when I got home, I opened my laptop and logged straight in to look at it. I then went over to my accounting software, completed my 2025 accounts and uploaded them to the tax website completing my return in the process.

No resistance.

No procrastination.

Was it a joy to do?

Not really – I have ended up with an extra amount to pay.

BUT I know that now and I don’t have to worry about it anymore, my mind can stop making up crazy stories of what my tax MIGHT be.

And that is what tapping on daily discomforts has given me.

Rather than sitting for days even weeks procrastinating about it, imagining worst case scenarios and doing everything but, I tapped, I processed what was there and then after a few hours I took action.

Not perfect action, just simple action.

What’s one small thing you’ve been avoiding that might feel easier with just a bit of EFT tapping?