Tax Day Was Yesterday And Today I Am Not Dead

My day started yesterday with my aunt calling me at 7:30am and calling me a “goober.”

And it’s true, Leah and I, especially me, were not prepared for what we knew was coming in the way we needed to be. We had done some good work, but our move kept getting prioritized above doing the taxes and I didn’t get anything to my aunt to review until the evening of April 14th. So what I sent her, my return, exported as PDF, was what got her to call me that g-word.

But we buckled down and my rockstar aunt whipped us into shape. We spent the day going over everything with a fine tooth comb, guided by Joan’s excellent, stern, but kind hand. I took the day off and we did math and figuring and calendar checking and email searching. We utterly failed to get printers going, printed at Kinko’s and found the Post Office that would be open till 11:59pm — the close one was in beautiful Oxnard! — and got the whole works in the mail at 7pm on April 15th.

We celebrated with some Souplantation and then went home and collapsed in a heap.

We’re still owe 5 figures to the IRS, not where we want to be. But we have a big chunk coming back from our rental deposit on our last place and we have some other windfalls forthcoming soon. We’re making good progress and are on track, I think. Next year, things will be different.

If anyone wants a referral to an incredible tax person, particularly in San Diego, but Southern California really — I have just the aunt. She saved us $4000 dollars yesterday, easy. She also is a Certified Financial Planner and is plain sensible about money. I’m happy she’s on my side against the world. I’m incredibly grateful to her for going the extra mile for us yesterday.

And with a heavy sigh and deep relief, I say, ONWARD.