good tax help hard to find

Thanks to my friend's recommendation, I went to see an accountant today for help on my 2006 taxes. Man, was the wait long. It was actually the second time I went to see the guy, but the first time was around lunch time, and there really was no hope to get in within a reasonable time period.

Today, I thought I'd be smart and get there by 10. I was smart, as it only took an hour before I got in front of the guy. Alas, things were not to smooth all the way.

Turns out that my company made a mistake on my W-2. I had worked in another state for 8 out of 12 months last year, but my company put all of my annual income as wages in my current state. That is exacerbated by the fact that my original state had no state income taxes, and my current one does. The tax hit would be significant based on the incorrect information.

So now, my task is to track down my payroll department to issue a corrected W-2 before the end of the month (since I'll be out of town for pretty much all of March). The alternative is to provide the accountant with all of my paystubs, starting when I first worked in New York, and he could make adjustments accordingly. It'll be more of a hassle (and I suspect, more time-consuming and expensive) but it's good to know there's a fallback option in case my payroll rep isn't as responsive as he/she needs to be.

One other nice surprise -- turns out my company accounted for my relocation expenses in such a way that they were the ones who got to deducted the full amount from their taxes, not me. That leaves me with a miniscule deduction (hooray for my company -- bastards). The accountant said it shouldn't be a problem assigning the relocation income to my original state, which has no income tax. My fingers remain crossed. =)