Tax Time (and my new CPA)

Do you have a CPA?  I didn't until recently.

When life was simpler, in fact every year before I got married, I used to do my own taxes.  I liked the control, and the fact that I could take weeks to do them, or do them in the middle of the night on April 14th.  I was proud that I did my taxes myself, still am.

But now we have things like filing jointly, and investments, and dependents, and a small business that I do out of my house.  All kinds of grownup stuff.

It was time.

I turned to Mike Scherrer, of Scherrer CPA in Tempe, who I happen to have known since high school (Dad of my BFF).   Not going to lie, I had a hard time entrusting my taxes to someone else.  Have I ever mentioned that I am a bit of a control freak? And perfectionist?

But he made it so easy.

Back at the end of last year, he sent me a tax organizer packet to help me get everything in order and to guide our conversation when we would meet in person, before he would prepare our taxes for us.  Yes, PREPARE OUR TAXES FOR US, this is a new concept for me.  

Now, I didn't do the tax organizer until last week (did I mention I'm also a procrastinator?), but a more sane person not suffering from morning sickness for two months could have done it much earlier in the year.

Then we met in person.

Can I just tell you how refreshing it was to have someone that I trust, who knows me and my family, who also happens to be an expert on taxes and tax laws (and all things personal finance) handling this for my family this year?  He asked us questions that will lead us to tax credits that we would not have even known about on our own.  He also knows the ins and outs of tax preparation and withholding for small businesses, which is huge for me because the small (tiny) business thing is brand new to us Griffins.

Anyway, let this be a personal endorsement and referral to anyone here in the Phoenix area looking for a CPA.  You can contact him here, and please tell him I sent you!

And three cheers for this preggo and her husband for taking care of taxes before April!

Speaking of preggo, I'm 16 weeks now and feeling great!