Taxes

Hey guys,

Our usual tax guy retired from doing it this year to our surprise. I asked him if he had any recommendations for us to go to, and he didn't. I spoke with my MIL, and she gave us the number of the place she uses. They are all booked up. Any ideas as to what we should do? HR Block,etc? Do it ourselves with a computer program? I am desperate. We usually procrastinate with the taxes, but this year has thrown us a curve ball.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sudden retirement right before tax season? Did he mention international travel or unmounted diamonds?

Do you have a shoebox full of receipts and a home based business? If not, just use an online tax prep service like TurboTax. The instructions are pretty simple and you can still dig up deductions.

I do ours using the TurboTax online. Its really not hard, took me most of a day after finding all of the proper paperwork, receipts, etc. It really is fairly simple to walk through it step by step and fill in the areas where needed. Even handled the wife working in one State and living in another (took care of our State's income tax stuff without issue.

If you have a small business you might need a more complex solution, but they even handled my wife's small business without issue by adding that module on. You have to pay more if you do that, but it isn't unreasonable.

I had one year's results checked by a family member who does taxes and she gave it a thumb's up. So I don't have any issues using their system.

We already got our returns back and are booking our big yearly vacation with the return. So why wait?

I used to use TurboTax, but last year between all of the multi-state stuff and federal the were going to charge me $88. And I'd still have to do the local county/school districts myself. So I did them all myself, didn't owe anything, mailed everything instead of e-filing, and it was done with. I didn't itemize, so it was easy to do it myself, and I felt stupid for all the previous years I had paid TurboTax for doing it.

• Lee

HR Block at home here. Easy peasy even with a late family addition.

slefain wrote: Sudden retirement right before tax season? Did he mention international travel or unmounted diamonds? Do you have a shoebox full of receipts and a home based business? If not, just use an online tax prep service like TurboTax. The instructions are pretty simple and you can still dig up deductions.

Not sudden retirement at all. He is a really old guy, and mentioned he was thinking about it last year, but didn't sound too serious about it. I guess he was. No home based business, just a 9-5er working for a large telecom company with a wife and two youngish kids. Own a home, and pay a mortgage. Live in Taxachusetts.

We used to have a Tax Preparer, but he went on to other job opportunities.

Since then the wife uses TurboTax online and it's been fine since.

In your case, you should be able to do a simple return by yourself.

If your taxes are complicated, file an extension, sending in any money you think you owe. That will buy you the time to find a good tax person.

Not complicated, and we usually get a return around $2500-3000 between the federal and state.

Unless you have complicated tax issues, like a business, rental property, investments, etc. Turbo Tax or H&R Block tax programs will be fine. I have used H&R's for the past 5 years and it's easy and I have had no issues with the IRS. Or at least once they had things explained to them that that zero coupon bond I bought had tax free interest and the sale of the bond was tax free as well. Wanted to charge me 7K in back taxes!

I used TaxAct for the last 5-6 years. Same type of thing as TurboTax and others, but cheaper.

Wife and I are filing together now, so we use the tax person who does her business work as well.

z31maniac wrote: I used TaxAct for the last 5-6 years. Same type of thing as TurboTax and others, but cheaper. Wife and I are filing together now, so we use the tax person who does her business work as well.

Did you use the free version? I'm trying to decide which I should use--everything is extremely simple about mine (single dude w/ no kids) until you get to my status as an independent contractor. I didn't get a 1099, but I will need to report everything and then I have a bunch of business expenses from that.

I've procrastinated as well...up until now I've always done them by hand and mailed them in, but I was reading up on the various tax software packages last night and TaxAct sounds like the best choice to me - the interface apparently isn't quite as easy to use as TurboTax but it's supposed to work just as well, and it's a lot cheaper.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: I used to use TurboTax, but last year between all of the multi-state stuff and federal the were going to charge me $88. And I'd still have to do the local county/school districts myself. So I did them all myself, didn't owe anything, mailed everything instead of e-filing, and it was done with. I didn't itemize, so it was easy to do it myself, and I felt stupid for all the previous years I had paid TurboTax for doing it. - Lee

Same here. When TurboTax wanted me to pay for State filing (which is quick, easy and FREE in PA), I said "eff this..."

I find that even though I itemize deductions and have a HSA, it's still faster to fill out the forms manually than playing the TurboTax 20,000 questions game. Plus, the way my company screwed up my HSA deduction, I lose quite a bit of money using TurboTax. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes when I stop procrastinating.

PA uses a phone-in system that takes about 5 min. Local is all online.

I've used TurboTax for years, like my entire adult life - we have no kids, 2 incomes, no investments, and very few deductions. The last couple years after I got a better job we were regularly breaking even or owing Fed around $300. Last year I paid someone to do our taxes because my wife got a business license to sell crafts (and never sold any.) It cost me $300 and we got back $800 or so.

I just called her today to let her know I was dropping off my stuff again this year...

Online tax prep is most likely perfectly fine for what you do. Shoot me an email if you have any questions...or I can prep the returns for you. - CPA by day