{{{{{{{{{{{{TAXES}}}}}}}}}}}}

Yeah, baby. That got your attention, didn’t it?

I was audited once. But I’ll save that for the end…

Tomorrow’s the Big T day, and I’m not talking about gobble-gobble, here. Hopefully, you’re one of the forsightful Chosen who got $$$$ back, plopped directly into your bank account like electronic manna from heaven. How sweet it is.

I’m  in that crowd, now more than ever since my marriage to Mary Jo in California was upheld by the courts, and the fact that we live in a community property state. Who knew that would matter? Seems the Federal Gov is trying, really trying, to stop discriminating against married gay couples, and ruled that even though we still can’t file jointly, since we live in a community property state we can “share” our deductions-of which I had many and MJo had few.

Like I understand this? Not a chance. And that, my friends, is why I don’t do our taxes. Nope, it was the wondrous Janice, CPA, who researched this and brought it to our attention. Long story short, Instead of MJo paying about $1200 on her Federal taxes, she pays $132. And we both hit the ol’ tax-o-rama jackpot with the state since in California we can file jointly.  Of course we both would have hit the Federal jackpot, too, if we could have filed those jointly, but don’t get me started. “Baby steps, Renee, baby steps”, that’s what MJo is always telling me.

So about that audit: the word surreal comes to mind. The dude actually spent time re-adding up all the little Michael’s and Aaron Brothers’ receipts. I kid you not. He told us he normally did corporate tax audits. He was into detail. Me too. Haha. He didn’t find a thing. AND I got the inspiration for this altered book made from an old tax manual my CPA had on hand. It’s called “I’d Rather Visit the Dentist—and Have a Root Canal”.

I sold it to a retired dentist’s wife. And yes, I declared the earnings. All $75 of them.

Take care for now,

Renée