Ouch

"I just got off the phone with my mom's accountant, who is doing my taxes this year thanks to some complex financial stuff having happened to me in 2005.
Back in the mid-90's my dad bought me some stock in a small local bank. Since then they have merged and expanded a few times, and the most recent merger paid me out some money and stock in the new company. I put the money away for future big purchases/needs (this was how I was able to buy Roo last month), and I ignore the stock and cash the small dividend checks every quarter. I just discovered that all the stock & money are being taxed as capital gains. And I have no house payments, big car tax bills, or other things to count as credit against it. And I didn't do anything fancy with it not expecting an issue.

So now I owe $3,200 in taxes.

ow...

I can use some of the savings, or sell off some of the stocks to pay for it, so I'm not screwed that way. But damn that hurts. That is nearly what I paid for Roo.

So much for using my tax refund to pay for work on Emily."