It wouldn't be April 14th without some 11th hour panicking.

I called my mother tonight, and she's stressed. She had a rough day at work, hasn't set up an IRA for 2007 yet and is overwhelmed by the options, hasn't figured her state taxes yet, and my grandmother's accountant's office called to say that they were getting started on her taxes today and ask how late tonight they could call my mother with questions. (Oy.)

There's a reason my grandparents' taxes go to a CPA: they're complicated, this year more than most. There were issues of making estimated payments on capital gains on stocks and mutual funds sold to pay for my grandfather's care, insane medical expenses, Medicaid kicking in partway through the year and paying my grandparents back for some of what they should have covered earlier if the bureaucracy hadn't gotten gummed up, and other assorted fun stuff. (Oh, and don't get me started on the "stimulus payment" and how that will affect my grandfather's Medicaid. Or, do get me started if you're genuinely interested.) We sorted through all of the relevant papers, filled out the worksheet from the accountant, delivered everything to her office, and trusted it would get done.

It looks like my mom may just tell them to file for an extension. That doesn't seem like a huge problem to me, but she seems perpetually overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy she has to deal with for my grandfather's care so this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I want to do what I can to ease the burden, but she's the one with power of attorney so there aren't that many tasks I can take over.