And I needed it this year. IRS made an error, and sent me a nice letter asking for a lot of $. Turbo Tax assigned us a tax professional and took care of everything. The $35 is worth it.

A great CPA is just as awesome as a great attorney.

Anyway, when I was a kid my Dad used to take like 12 big paper bags to the CPA at the last minute. I know the CPA had to hate Dad for that, but he always did a great job, and he got Dad out of a very big bind one time.

I have used that CPA myself for almost 25 years now for corporate and personal. The old man has passed but his son is almost as good as he was.

And while Dad did all the bags at the last minute, I am so organized I fax about 7 sheets of paper(I fax because they are about 40 min each way drive), and I always have all my info in to them in mid January long before the rush comes in for them.

Dad made it hard on the CPA, I make it easy.

In 24 years they messed up one time, and a big penalty was even involved, and they said it was on them, fax them that paper, and they would take care of it and not charge me a dime.

I personally know, my CPA does awesome work, and stands 100% behind their work. And I can call them any business day of the year for advice about something, and I have never been charged one penny for the advice and help I get during the year.

I almost forgot, but 15 or 20 years ago I got a weird letter from the IRS and a check for like 13.00(I can not remember, but it was small), and I took that to my CPA and he laughed his ass off. He said something like the IRS had spent a lot of man hours reviewing my stuff for whatever reason and ended up having to pay me. He said something to the affect that the government spent about 400.00 on staff, to end up losing another 13.00 or whatever it was.

I am still behind on the 7 year rule for keeping receipts, just a few weeks ago I finally got rid of everything through 2004.

And I will admit, at first because of my Dad crap advice at first I would wait to the last minute and file extensions and bs. But that just is not me, never was.

Dad always waited to the last minute to pay any bill, or whatever else. I pay my bills the same day I get them.

As far as my CPA, he is a tad pricey, but has been well worth it. He saves me more than I pay him.

The biggest thing with the system that ticks me off is how bad things run together in the first quarter. Corporate due 3/15, then right after that first quarter due.

And in the first quarter I have tons on insurance bills and whatever due also, and high CPA bills, so first quarter of every year is always depressing with all the money going out.

3rd quarter kind of sucks also, I have rental houses so all the property tax going on then.

4th quarter, (and some 2nd quarter) I can breath and have a few bucks.

It is what it is and pretty much the same every year.

My best advice is to get it done asap so you can forget about it asap.

I keep notes on my keyboard about what I need to take care of, and I cross them out asap.

And while I send my CPA everything mid Jan., only because I am waiting for a few things in the mail. My personal and corporate #'s are always ready on New Years Day.

I use a CPA at a nationwide firm, Clifton Larson Allen for my personal and business. My ass is covered, and no real firms do not use TurboTax. Even a small CPA should be using specialized software such as Drake.

This is my eleventh year using Turbo Tax. Love it! I used to work for an accounting firm, where one of my CPA friends would do my returns for me. Then they started shipping the returns to India for keying and then back to the CPA for review.
I don't have anything too complex, so Turbo Tax is the best thing for me!

Um holy shit please tell us the name of the accounting firm outsourcing work to India so everyone can avoid that BS

Let's just say this....It's a lot more common than you want to know.

Superior Hindu mathematicians making three bucks an hour. What can possibly go wrong?

I worked for a software company that had a product that supposedly automatically gathered data off the internet. In reality, it sent the requests to a team in Asia who manually found the data, typed it in, and sent it back.

A couple years ago my refund check was about $6k less than what I filed. I called up the IRS to find out why and they said one of my quarterly estimated tax checks was never received. I spent two hours on the phone with them while they tried to find out where it went. Finally I noticed my bank had an image of the check posted online and the stamp on the back had somebody else's SSN on it. They applied my payment to somebody else's account and couldn't trace it until I found the account it went to for them.

freetaxusa.com

It's...... FREE. It's almost exactly like TurboTax. I've used them both. They are similar. This one is far cheaper.

$12 for most state returns. Some are free though.

I would be worried about how this company makes it's money. Nobody does anything for free, and you're giving them a ton of information about yourself. It wouldn't surprise me to find out it was owned by Google.

Just remember, you get what you pay for. Here's a story from my grab back of shit I've seen H&R preparers pull over the years I've been in the industry. My uncle, a farmer, took his taxes to H&R for years and paid for the audit protection. He then got audited because some moron depreciated a tractor twice by mistake. Then after the audit letter came, H&R wrote one response letter and decided they were in over their head. He moved to a local CPA who got things lined out for him. It was a total dumpster fire just because of incompetence.

H&R employes preparers who they ram through their in house class and then make them preparer hundreds of returns a year. It's totally a volume based game with no care for the clients. One more example: My dad has an employee with a druggie burnout girlfriend, who has been unemployed for the last 2 years. She just went through a month of training and could now be doing your return at that local H&R office.

The moral of the story is you get what you pay for. And remember, any monkey can dump numbers into a computer program, but not any monkey can tell you if the output is correct.

Happens all the time now.

H&R Block is fine as long as you don't have a complicated return. What you are missing is tax planning advice, which can take place over years.

I often hear that CPA's can find overlooked deductions, but is it really so that e.g. Turbotax does not cover all that? Full disclosure, I've been using Turbotax for years, it's pretty straight forward (at least in my case, despite having investments and property) but I've always wondered if I'm missing something by not using a tax professional

Unfortunately there is no straight forward answer here. Each taxpayer's situation can vary significantly. There are clients I can save a lot of money and some I won't have anything different from TurboTax (or any other software). Where we bring value to the table is point out things that software might not recommend, and those things are all situational. We get to know clients over years and make sure together we are going the most we can for the financial benefit.

I've been using H&R Block's software since it was pre-H&R Block (TaxCut). I see that Credit Karma has a free tax service. Anyone tried this?

Since they no longer have them at the post office, I download the forms from IRS.gov and make paper copies of them. Then I break out my trusty pen and fill in all the numbers and add and subtract them like the instructions tell me to do. Same as it ever was.

Rocket science.

You've never amended a return? If not better start looking closely to last year's return. I just found $589 with a tip from the threaders here.

Nope. And I'm not stupid enough to let them hold a lot of my money so I have to wait to get a refund to get it back.

Usually I owe them or they owe me no more than $100. I've got it down to a science.

I'd drop the pride and double check last year's return when you do the current one. It has helped me. As you stated its not rocket science. And its also not an exact science. You'll most likely find a mistake or a different way to change your last year's return, to amend it.

I use last years to help plan this years. Although last years was a little different than prior years. As soon as they release the instructions and forms, I'm off and running doing my creative end of year banking and such to make sure I give them as little as possible.

I also do my mom's and daughters. My brother, the USC graduate with a CPA degree can't even do his own.

I go to a local CPA every year, always $100-$125, depending on side work

So guy in the next cube as me "applied" his tax return to this years tax....how does he get that back?

Yep those work. I always went to the Library for mine.

He may not get any of it back. He is just thinking ahead and paying taxes sooner rather than later.

Thinking ahead is the key. And it can be tricky. Because there are things you can do before the end of the tax year to save you money, but you don't get any of your forms until a month after that.

But it was a mistake, he gets a refund every year so you'd think those monies would be somewhere to basically double his return.
He put the monies ahead to pay for a debt he would never have....that's why its so confusing And funny

That isn't too logical, but many people do that as they don't understand the time value of money.

It's always funny when somebody brags about how big their tax return will be.

The best way to maximize your return is by including tons of unnecessary schedules.

Or have them take out and hold way more money along the way than is required.

Helps with them property tax payments.

You're thinking of refunds. We're talking about maximizing your return, which means filing the largest number of pages possible.

Gotcha!

I agree it is not logical for most people. I always delay paying if I can. I want my money working for me not someone else.

I can't count the times I tried to explain to clients (usually single or double W2) that they were not getting money from the government, they were getting their money back without interest paid to them.

Ignorance is plentiful out there.

Usually followed by then bragging how they can pay off their CC debt and where they are going to spend what's leftover and keep zero in savings.

I hate giving the gov a interest free loan, but I also like just having a bit of money squirreled away that I can use as fun money. Yes I understand I could easily do the same thing without having more taxes taken out of my check. Whatever. I've always used H&R block, my return is very easy with just a regular 1098 and my mortgage. It makes me sick when I see what I pay H&R block to do a relatively easy job though. I think last year it cost me like $200! I might try turbotax finally this year.

If you decide to buy TT, don’t pay full price. You can always find it at a lower price. Lots of financial institutions sell it at a lower price than MSRP.

Costco and Amazon usually have it cheaper than retail.

Can't I just do it online?

Yup.

I understand your soliciting advice from those who share your hobby, but a pinball forum is not the optimal location to seek tax advice. There is really no one size fits all solution. The incomes and financial positions of the people here is vast and varied. Best of luck working this out.

Amazon has it for download online, and I believe there is a free version for basic tax returns.

I find filing taxes oddly satisfying. Maybe I have been a tax accountant, or maybe there's just something about closing out the year. I always shoot for a $0 return by adjusting my W-4, but some capital gains late in the year foiled that plan for me, so I'll be writing a fat check to both the federal government and the state of Illinois.

It's almost like asking pinside "how should I handle my divorce?"

It will be interesting to see how these tax software packages compete now that the IRS has stated they are exploring developing their own free competitive solution.

Because government programs always work out so well

I'll bet the first thing you see is a disclaimer saying they are not responsible when your taxes are screwed up.

Also, what about state taxes?