I just got my life back.

Tax season was so hard this year. And I've had some seriously hard years before. This year basically took me two solid months of Sundays, and an occasional full weekend like this one.

Stuff that used to be pretty routine, suddenly became super painful. For instance companies started taking "some" taxes out of ESPP sales last year. Which is a totally new rule.  They never used to take any taxes out of ESPP sales. If you don't file right you will get double taxed on ESPP sales. Here.

I literally had three rooms splayed out with documents. I actually get paper audited every few years. I just got paper audited right before Christmas. So far I've never had to pay any extra money. I'm scared to even gloat because as fastidious as you try to be, one day I'm going to make a mistake. You can't be perfect forever. But I've been paper audited at least 5 times. One time when I called them, they told me they thought I owed so much money they were sure it was wrong and didn't even start sending the mean letters first. This was back before the recession.

The funny thing about my November audit, you could already tell the IRS was crushed. They sent me two letters basically saying we got your documentation but we are too busy to look at them. In February they cleared me. But with the new IRS rules, and Obamacare - I would not want to work at the IRS right now. I don't find them to be horrible people because I don't cheat on my taxes. Usually they just want extra documentation. They've been very professional every time I've talked to them. But I totally believe a lot of people probably aren't getting the help they need because they are so swamped.