Liz and I are eating chorizo and beans for breakfast this morning.

Mexican-style. The good kind.

In two years, I'll be eating something like it on the other side of the world, sitting on a stone bench somewhere outside a village in Spain, boots off, feet wrecked, twelve more miles behind me than the day before.

That's the plan anyway.

Somehow this morning's breakfast got us talking about how we got there.

A movie called The Way. Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. A father walking the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route across Spain.

That movie planted a seed years ago.

This morning it grew into a decision.

I'm walking the Camino.

Not visiting Spain. Walking it. Day after day. Miles at a time. Carrying what I need. Dealing with the weather, the sore feet, myself. 

I turn 60 in 2028. That's the year.

Call it a Misogi. Once a year, do something hard enough that you remember the year because you did it. Not a resolution you keep talking about. Something you finish.

Liz looked at me and said, "You're serious about this." 

I am.

Because here's what I've learned about hard things.

You don't wake up one day and do them.

You decide, and then every ordinary morning after that, even one with chorizo and beans on a random Sunday, starts pointing toward it.

Maybe your Camino isn't a trail. Maybe it's not a mountain or a marathon.

Maybe it's sitting in a drawer, piled on a desk, or waiting in an unopened envelope with three letters across the top.

IRS. 

What if 2026 became the year you finally ended that?

Not just an agreement with The Collector (the IRS).

I mean, what changes when the weight actually comes off.

• Your feet hit the floor, and taxes aren't the first thing on your mind.

• You open the mailbox without the knot in your stomach.

• You answer the phone without checking who it is first.

• You talk to your spouse about money and the tax problem isn't sitting in the middle of it.

• You start making plans again. Saving again. Sleeping.

I've done this work long enough to know something most people don't understand until they're living it.

A serious tax problem never stays in the tax department of your life. 

It leaks. Into your finances. Your marriage. Your health. Your business. Your confidence.

And the longer you carry it, the more normal that weight feels. Until you almost forget what it was like before it showed up.

Here's the part nobody tells you. The IRS isn't waiting on you to feel ready.

Every month this sits, penalties compound. Interest compounds on the penalties. The number you're avoiding today is smaller than the one you'll be avoiding in six months.

You're not standing still. You're losing ground.

I gave myself two years to walk across Spain. You don't need two years for this.

You need one decision.

I'm done carrying this. 

Tell me what you're dealing with at TaxDebtTriage.com.

Or call me directly at 909-570-1103 or book your own appointment at CallTaxEa.com 

I'll take it from there.

Carlos "Prove It" Samaniego, EA,
The Tax Debt Detective
TaxDebtConsultant.com
909-570-1103

P.S. In 2028 I'll be somewhere outside a village in Spain, eating chorizo again, feet wrecked, knowing I finished what I started. I'd rather you be somewhere saying the same thing about your tax problem than still carrying it into another year.

P.P.S. If you've never seen the movie "The Way" with Martin Sheen, here's the trailer for it. Beautiful movie.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2G1YYBrsgk