of tax returns and fair value

So I was working on my tax returns a few days ago. I have this software that I use - it asks me a bunch of questions that I answer and once I've keyed in every significant thing that has ever happened in my whole life - information about my ancestors, my pocket money when I was 7, the couple of bucks I had borrowed from my friend in undergrad, the mileage on my car and my blood group - this software eventually tells me that I owe the feds a little over one grand. The questions change a little every year but the end result is the same. I never learn and I always hope that this time will be different. Anyways, I was in the process of answering the multitude of questions this software generates when it asked me for some information regarding some shares and fair market value. Fair Market Value was defined as something like the price a willing, knowledgeable buyer would pay a willing, knowledgeable seller when neither has to buy or sell anything and both understand the conditions of the sale. This stumped me. I mean, if the buyer is knowledgeable indeed, why would he pay anything when the seller is not selling anything? But then, if the buyer is not even buying, what the heck is the money for? And what on earth are these "conditions" of the sale? One wonders. Anyways, this just solidified my lurking suspicions that all this tax returns was just a ruse by the government to take my money away from me. And I must say that if they expect me to part with a decent amount of money, they should come up with something better than this willing-buyer-willing-seller-no-sale nonsense.

Now that I've unburdened my soul, I think I can go to sleep. Goodnight. ( I still owe you guys that poem, by the way).

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