It’s tax time here in Australia and many people are pulling together information to complete their returns. A few clients asked me recently if they should do their tax returns during Mercury retrograde, and I thought the answer could be useful for others.
Retrogrades called for re- actions; review, revise, reconsider, reassess, realign and so on. So reviewing your financials for the past twelve months and pulling it all together is the perfect use of this energy. It can also be research, so looking into what you can and can’t claim is a great use of the retrograde too. Even pulling it all together and asking your accountant to reassess it works well too.
The tricky part is the timing of lodging your tax return with the ATO. Your tax return is a legal document, an agreement between you and the government that you are required to sign to confirm it’s veracity. And this is not a great use of retrograde energy – often things signed under a retrograde come back for readjustment later. This could come up as a simple error the tax office picks up and asks you or your accountant to adjust. Or it could turn into an audit. And NOBODY likes a tax audit, whether or not it’s all clear and legal. And there is a lot of areas in between those examples which cause you to spend extra time and energy on your taxes down the track – who wants any of this either?
So my suggestion would be to wait until Mercury moves away from its station period, which is after 2pm on 2 August here in Australia. Even better to wait until it’s in Leo and has picked up full speed on 10 August, and best of all is once Mercury is out of its shadow period on 15 August. If it is urgent, then using the Venus-Mercury conjunction this coming Thursday (25 July) will give you a good possible option, but as friend and colleague, Kelly Surtees, reminded me today this is happening in the terms of Saturn which can signify issues with authorities or things that become long term. All of this is especially true for anyone with Gemini or Sagittarius rising as this is happening in your areas of finances, debt and taxes, so delay if you can!