Or something like that.

I was stressing about our taxes. I'd started them in TurboTax Online, but then I lost my nerve. I blame it on being sick. I've never lost my nerve doing taxes before. Then again, I've never owed taxes in my life! This bit about having to pay $2000 was freaking me out to no end. Especially with Mr. A just having started up his business full-time. It's not like we have money dropping off trees around here.

So I was having a chit-chat with my mother-in-law and she was giving me all kinds of interesting advice, such as, “Oh, it's no problem that you didn't keep track of your mileage all year long. All you have to know is your odometer reading at the beginning of the year and the number at the end of year.” “Quarterly estimated taxes? What are those? Never heard of those, dear.”

She strongly advised me to at least have a visit with her tax guy, so he could set all my worries to rest.

I told Mr. A about his mother's suggestion and he thought it couldn't hurt.

In spite of my doubts about Mr. Taxman, he seemed to be knowledgeable. He has done my MIL's and my SIL's taxes for several years.

So we took all our paperwork and I asked a bunch of questions. Mr. A really doesn't get into this sort of thing, so he just sat and listened, and I explained to Mr. Taxman that I'm the “psycho accountant” part of Mr. A's business.

I really liked that Mr. Taxman is an “email guy”. You know, one of those people who emails you first, rather than calling you on the phone with questions? He has emailed me twice, asking for a bit more information. The last time he emailed, he informed me at the moment we owed $1000 between the state and federal. I am happy to hear about that!

He said he normally charges $90 plus $20 for each Schedule C, of which we'll have three. So I figure he'll charge us under $150.

When our incentive check arrives, we should get $1200 back. If we pay $1000 in taxes, and $150 to the taxman, we'll have an extra $50 left over.

As it turns out, I ended up finding some mistakes our tax guy had made. Read about it here.