There was pie, but all I have now is crust...

At least I have that...

A piece of the pie. Uncle Sam wants some. Johnny Tax-preparer wants some. In the past, I've been able to keep most of the slices, but - ouch - not this year.

Well, I need to stop whining. In the end, all we owe is a small amount of state tax. But the real frustration was the $$ we spent to have a tax preparer tell us we owed money...a fee that outweighed the money owed itself. D'oh. Still, when you're used to getting a decent tax refund, a year like this one kinda sucks. It could've sucked much more (we were worried about it), but - fortunately - it's not so bad.

As I blogged before, I seriously hope next year's taxes will be less complicated...so it would either cost less to have them prepared or I could figure it all out myself and use TurboTax of Taxcut (either option would make me happier).

On the bright side, the federal government didn't have free loan at my expense this year. True dat!