Never date someone who can't do their own taxes

Are you dating someone who can’t get it together to pay their taxes? You gotta do something about that.

Tax Day is a literal day of assessment. Every year you’re forced to take stock of your financial life and pay up or, if you’re lucky, get a nice refund. But it's also a time to assess the state of your romantic life.

Specifically, if your significant other (or even the person you’re trying to lock down) cannot get it together to file their returns on time and in an organized way, you should break up with them. It may sound harsh, but it's true.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

How someone handles this relatively simple, if painfully boring, task can tell you a lot about how they’ll handle the rest of their lives. The ability to do your taxes is one of adulthood’s most basic skills. And if your boo has not yet taken it upon themselves to embrace this part of being a responsible grownup, they’re not yet ready for the other parts of a real relationship.

(Clearly this only applies to people you want to be in a relationship with for the long haul. If you’re just having fun, you shouldn’t even be talking about taxes. Go ahead and bad boy away.)

But if you're serious, there are no excuses. If they're old enough to have a job, they're old enough to deal with taxes. It doesn’t matter how: TurboTax, the accountant down the block, or even mailing them off to your parents' accountant. But they've got to do it of their own accord -- with minimal harassment from their mother or you or anyone else.

If your partner is one of those people who files a last-second extension or, worse, doesn't bother to deal at all, consider moving on ASAP to save yourself the pain of being stuck with a man- or lady-child down the road.

You can get away with a lot in this life, but not paying taxes is not one of them.