It's tax time

[michaelluscher]

And mine are done
TurboTax emailed me today saying the IRS is now accepting returns
I'm lucky my taxes are simple, single/no kids/no property/no investments
W-2 and a standard deduction has been my M.O for the past 8 years
If it took me 15 minutes, that's stretching it
They imported my W-2, compared to last years, and remembered my direct deposit info from last year

If you have a simple tax situation, it's so easy to do yourself, why would you pay an accountant?
I recognize if you've got 3 marriages, 4 kids, 5 houses, and 6 EV's , that could get complicated, and demand professional advice
But for the average John/Jane W-2, it needn't be difficult or expensive

How do you all handle tax season

 

[ctechbob]

Pretty much the same. Don't have enough deductions to itemize and even though I'm married, we file separately because of school loans the wife carries. Only thing I have to claim this year is a $300 rebate for my new water heater.

2.9% mortgage interest and no PMI and there goes any hope of breaking out of standard deduction.

 

[Creekside]

I consider myself lucky. I use H&R Block, I use the owner of the franchise who also owns the license office next door and her husband has been an independent plumber most of his life. I've known them for years.

All my income and expenditures for the business, farm etc. is tracked in Excel and I just print off the totals from the spreadsheets and bring in the W-2 and all my 1099s and other documentation. She usually has it done in 45 minutes to an hour. She's familiar with small business taxes and is a wealth of knowledge when I have questions. I am overdue for a CPA but currently happy with H&R. When she retires in a few years I'll be looking around.

 

[Skippy722]

Pretty much same for us, but add a house, married (she’s a stay at home mom who works far FAR harder than I do) and 4 kids. We don’t itemize though (don’t have enough to make it worthwhile, don’t pay enough in property taxes+interest) so it’s super easy. I’m just waiting on my W2.

 

[parshisa]

Free tax USA here. Easy and intuitive to use, and truly free. Been using TurboTax for years but switched to FTU last year. Still waiting on W2 and other forms, but that’s the software I’m gonna use this year again

 

[Lubener]

And mine are done
TurboTax emailed me today saying the IRS is now accepting returns
I'm lucky my taxes are simple, single/no kids/no property/no investments
W-2 and a standard deduction has been my M.O for the past 8 years
If it took me 15 minutes, that's stretching it
They imported my W-2, compared to last years, and remembered my direct deposit info from last year

If you have a simple tax situation, it's so easy to do yourself, why would you pay an accountant?
I recognize if you've got 3 marriages, 4 kids, 5 houses, and 6 EV's , that could get complicated, and demand professional advice
But for the average John/Jane W-2, it needn't be difficult or expensive

How do you all handle tax season

For simple returns and if someone meets the income requirements, free file can can used off the IRS web site so someone has no need to buy tax software. It is getting more difficult to meet the requirements to itemize these days. I wish it were possible to deduct donations on the main form.

 

[hrv]

And mine are done
TurboTax emailed me today saying the IRS is now accepting returns
I'm lucky my taxes are simple, single/no kids/no property/no investments
W-2 and a standard deduction has been my M.O for the past 8 years
If it took me 15 minutes, that's stretching it
They imported my W-2, compared to last years, and remembered my direct deposit info from last year

If you have a simple tax situation, it's so easy to do yourself, why would you pay an accountant?
I recognize if you've got 3 marriages, 4 kids, 5 houses, and 6 EV's , that could get complicated, and demand professional advice
But for the average John/Jane W-2, it needn't be difficult or expensive

How do you all handle tax season

I have used TurboTax for the past 9 years and have had no issues with them.

 

[racer12306]

Historically, I did my wife's and my as joint with TurboTax. We started a LLC in 2020, plus with the insanity that was that time frame, I had an accountant do them for the 2020 and 2021 years. I've got a little more time now, I'm going to aim to do them myself once I have all our W2s, but I'll have enough time if I screw it up to get with the accountant.


Note for everyone that does it themselves, CLICK EVERY BUTTON AND MENU AND EXPLORE EVERYTHING.

Several years ago I got curious and did that and found another thousand dollars owed to us.

 

[Timmastertech]

I have an accountant on retainer for the business that does my personal stuff as well. I will get him my personal stuff eventually and by tax day he will tell me what to cut the check for

 

[tbm5690]

Free tax USA here. Easy and intuitive to use, and truly free. Been using TurboTax for years but switched to FTU last year. Still waiting on W2 and other forms, but that’s the software I’m gonna use this year again

Someone recommended this a few years ago here and I made the switch, never looked back. How they do it for that cheap is beyond me.

I filed yesterday...I always end up waiting on the 1099s from my brokerage which tend to come after all my other forms.

 

[Spectre694]

Used TurboTax for the last couple of year but switched to freetaxusa last year.

For some reason TurboTax kept deciding I owed like 10k in additional taxes and wanted me to pay 100 bucks to explain how they came up with that number.

 

[parshisa]

Someone recommended this a few years ago here and I made the switch, never looked back. How they do it for that cheap is beyond me.

I filed yesterday...I always end up waiting on the 1099s from my brokerage which tend to come after all my other forms.

Which brokerage it is? I have Schwab and M1 and they won’t get me the forms till Feb 15th

 

[Passport1]

I use Free Tax USA but this would be much better. It would make 15 April just another spring day.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I've been using Turbo Tax for many years. At least one year I should have had a good tax accountant review and advise me; I kinda regret that.

 

[parshisa]

I've been using Turbo Tax for many years. At least one year I should have had a good tax accountant review and advise me; I kinda regret that.

did TT screw something up?

 

[JeffKeryk]

did TT screw something up?

That wasn't my issue. I was lucky enough to pay a lot of taxes that year. An expert may have known ways to help. Schwab sent me to such a firm, but I did not take their advice. My bad.
I would love to have that problem again.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Closed my business in 2020. Made them much simpler but my income chart is slightly depressing. CA got an extra month because of the rain. We usually pay a little so I wait until the last minute. No free loans from me.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

That wasn't my issue. I was lucky enough to pay a lot of taxes that year. An expert may have known ways to help. Schwab sent me to such a firm, but I did not take their advice. My bad.
I would love to have that problem again.

I have had an accountant review my turbo tax prepared taxes. They said there wasn't anything else to do, legally. People get creative with their lies and deductions to make it work. It's a gamble.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I have had an accountant review my turbo tax prepared taxes. They said there wasn't anything else to do, legally. People get creative with their lies and deductions to make it work. It's a gamble.

I hope you are right, but I just don't know. Schwab sent me to a firm in Palo Alto for a free hour consultation. The person's office, in an incredible high rise, was bigger than my living room and furnished like a freakin' mansion. I have a good business finance background, so we were able to cover a lot of ground. Ultimately the cost to do my taxes would have been at least $10K for them to do it, and would not have been done by her, rather it would be done by "one of her team". This firm was for people with real money; multi million dollar incomes. While she quickly asked me questions far above my paygrade, she said I was pretty good and should be able to do a good job using Turbo Tax. At the end of our time, which exceeded the hour, she happily offered to review my results for no charge. I did not take her up on that; my mistake.

 

[tbm5690]

Which brokerage it is? I have Schwab and M1 and they won’t get me the forms till Feb 15th

Fidelity. All my forms hit the 20th or 21st this month.