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For those of you who don’t know, I had a MAJOR breakup at the beginning of this year. That’s right. I officially parted ways with the woman who has done my taxes for past 15 years! For some reason this has been the most difficult uncoupling I’ve had in a long time. After years of being audited and dealing with a not-so-nice attitude, I finally decided that I deserve more because.... I’m a paying customer! The straw that broke the camel’s back was when last year’s taxes snowballed into this year’s issues. She supposedly closed her eyes and punched in whatever numbers she wanted to which caused my 2021 taxes to get caught in the IRS “upside down” world. Whatever she did was so awful that the IRS pushed my taxes to the back of the line for bad behavior. When I reached out to her about the issues, she proceeded to tell me that she had a lot going on and I needed to chill. Because I don’t like confrontation, I gave her grace when I really wanted to give her mase. I sat on the phone with the IRS from March 2022 until the ball dropped at 12am on January 1st, 2023.
This year I told myself that I would NOT go back to her. Even if she sends the annual Time for Taxes email. I was ten toes to the ground. She was not going to get my W2,3, 4, 5, or 6!! In an effort to stick to my word, I made an appointment with a new tax preparer. I watched as this new person peered over the top of her bifocals, stared at the screen, and looked back at me in utter disgust. After about 30 minutes or so, she turned the computer screen towards me, cleared her throat and said, “this is how much you OWE.” I was like.. OWE?? Excuse you? EGGGSFREAKINGSCUSE YOU?!! And that’s when she broke the news to me that million-dollar refunds are not normal, and I actually shouldn’t ever get a refund because I’m a single girl who’s not a homeowner yet. I thought to myself…So, I’m being punished for being fashionably single and not in debt? Okay, America! I was also told that I was being audited for Georgia taxes from 2014!! When I reached out to the woman who previously did my taxes to tell her that I supposedly owe even more taxes from when I lived in Georgia, she sent me a simple text back that said, “how did that happen?” I didn’t even know how to respond to that, so I just looked at the message and attempted to aggressively disconnect like it was a Nokia flip phone.
Either way it goes, I’m happy that all of this happened. All too often we get in the habit of letting people control important things in our lives. My lack of awareness with my taxes was insane. I just trusted that homegirl was doing everything right despite that fact that I was getting audited every other year. Funny how we “trust fall” so freely huh? I know this isn’t the breakup story anyone thought I was going to write about but this one was the much more difficult one. Taxes man.. Taxes ….