So… we “have a guy,” as they say. He prepares our taxes every year. For the longest time I did my own, then several years after Dawn and I got married I did them for both of us, and then one year I tallied everything up as usual and instead of getting a refund or breaking even, we owed a significant hunk of change. We weren’t really making any more money than before so we’re talking about having to pay money we didn’t have. I checked twice more over, couldn’t figure it out. Something in the laws had changed, something expired perhaps… I think it might have been the earned income credit? The fact I wasn’t sure was the worst part. Well no, the worst part was having a month to figure out where we were going to scrounge up that extra cash on short notice.

It worked out, but after that I swallowed my pride and got a guy, the same guy that friends I trusted had already been using. And yep, he’s good. Up until we started using him I’ll admit I was scared of putting anything “Studio” related on our return because I didn’t know what the laws were on doing such. He got that straightened out. It’s not cheap, but after he takes his fee we’ve still come out consistently ahead of that one awful year.

Now the tax situation in the States is set for a big change again and there’s a lot of confusion about what and what didn’t make the final bill that was signed, and who it benefits and who it hurts. At first there were scary rumors about “pass-through” deductions being eliminated, which would have been a huge hit on us and other small-timers like us. That thankfully has been reported to not be the case, or was walked back after protest, or whatever. As for what else is changing or not changing as a result of that massive 400+ page document, well… I’m glad we’ve got a guy so we can spend our Holidays with more cheer than worry.