It’s the time of year when I must prepare taxes. I fill out a long form, so it means wading through my year of receipts and papers, organizing my claimed deductions by topic, and then getting it to my CPA to file. Tomorrow will be a long day, and it does take me at least whole day to complete my portion of the work. Yet, this work is a necessary part of the writing business.
I’ve looked in vain on the net for the origin of the phrase “the taxman cometh.” If any of my readers know, do write me at rickeyp@bayou.com and share that information with me. I’ve always been interested in the etymology of words and the origin of phrases. When I find where the phrase came from or who first said it, I’ll post it here.
Although this is an old post, it was disappointing that there were no answers to it – I was wondering the same thing today, some three years later.
Anywho – not the best of sources, but it rings a bell: I looked the term up in Wikipedia, and it alleged that the phrase originated as a play upon the popular play title “The Iceman Cometh” by Eugene O’Neill.