L.S.
Hi L. - I'm sorry to hear about your father-in-law and the difficult time that your family is having as a result. He is blessed to have family like you and your husband who care so much about him.
As for your tax situation, it does sound like you are being overcharged based on my experience of hiring different tax preparers over the years. I currently pay about $200 to have mine done, and I know even that is at the higher end of the pricing scale for the person who does mine, since he has told me that (I have a relatively complicated tax situation). I highly recommend that you contact the person I use - he is full of knowledge and advice, works out of a home office so has low overhead, and is also a financial planner. I contact him througout the year with tax-related and other financial questions, and he always has the answers or researches them and gets back to me the same day, if not immediately - and he has never charged me a penny for any of that, just my annual tax preparation. (In fact, we just exchanged e-mails this morning - yes, early Saturday morning - in response to a question I have about my 4Q 2009 estimated tax payments that are due to the IRS and IL on Jan. 15.) He is an amazingly kind, patient and wonderful man - I promise you won't be disappointed with him. Here is his contact info:
Harold Templeton, CFP®
Cornerstone Financial Planners, Inc.
330 Flagstaff Lane
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-3228
###-###-#### Fax ###-###-####
____@____.com
http://www.cfp-online.net/
BTW, although Harold came to my home to meet with me the first time that I hired him to do my taxes about 9 years ago, in the years after that, I have given him all of my information via e-mail, phone and fax to do my taxes, so don't worry that Darien is about 26 miles or so from his office in Hoffman Estates.
Good luck,
L.