Welcome to the world of “paying your fair share”. Our Tax law punish those who work. If you don’t know that, you are not going to like your future.

it also seems, because you are surprised by this tax bill, that you need professional tax planning help. I got hit with an $80K tax bill last year. Yeah, that sucked. But it was 3 things that came together and luckily I was prepared. I now have a CPA and a TaX Attorney. They both said my last years tax surprise was not avoidable, but having them now I know it is coming.

when you are getting a big “retro” check and selling a house… prepare to pay big. No, if you buy another house it is not tax free. It is capped around half a mil. But even with that, the big gotcha no one gets, they still add the gain to your AGI. Which raised the tax rate on your other earning.

taxes are a *****.