Yeaaah, The Taxmaaaaan....

I'm singin' a happy song today, folks, because we're getting a Refund with a capital R!

I haven't yet paid a penny of income tax for my new business; I set aside the money like I was supposed to and had been waiting for my accountant to sort it all out so I could write the check. I expected to owe several thousand, plus the penalty for not paying it in quarterly installments (you can't pay quarterly estimates when your income starts at zero and you have no clue what it will end up) last year. So I've been on pins and needles, hoping the couple thousand I stashed away would cover it. When she told us the refund amount - over 3 grand - at first I thought that's what I owed! I had to ask her to repeat it twice before it sank in. What saved us was my husband's bonus getting taxed back to the stone age - it ended up covering my income and then some.

There aren't words to express the depths of my relief. With the refund we can now afford to:
- adopt a dog
- get me cycling shoes (!!!)
- do a couple more races this summer
- finish my husband's office in the basement (it needs little things like a floor and a ceiling and lights)
- pay down the escrow shortfall (which will lower our mortgage payment)

I'm saving most of my tax stash so I'll be sure to have enough cash on hand to start paying quarterly taxes next year; I'm excited to use some of it for stuff my business needs, like letterhead and promotional items.

And did I mention I'm getting cycling shoes?! I'm so freaking excited! That was the one huge thing holding me back from real progress. I can live with only doing one tri this year, but it was driving me nuts that I wasn't properly equipped to train for the longer distances I'd planned to work up to by the end of this season. Heck, I can't even go for long pleasure rides until I get some shoes that actually fit. It's gonna be a nightmare to find them (the few makers that offer wide widths only offer them in mens sizes, which don't go down small enough for me) but I know it will be worth it once I get to go biking based on how far I want to ride and not how long it takes my feet to be in pain.

Now I just have to start calling every bike shop in the Chicagoland area to see if they carry the brands that come in wide...