It's Tax Time!

[Nocona]

How do you do your taxes?

Paper and pencil? (WHY?!?!)
Software (Turbo Tax, etc.)
Private accountant or CPA?
H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, etc.?


I do them myself and I use Tax Cut software and submit online. So nice! Of course the IRS has screwed me over twice in the last 3 years (one time they spelled our last name wrong and then lost our return for 2 months and then last year they had DH's SS # wrong :rolleyes: ). I'm hoping for the best this year!

[kim]

you probably won't be shocked to hear we pay someone :lol: he's a cpa. we are only waiting on one document and we are ready to submit to him.

i like to file early :nod:

[Hilary]

Turbo Tax! :) I was going to do them yesterday, but I didn't have time. :lol:

My best friend is a CPA, if our taxes were harder I'd probably call her up and ask her to do them.

[Brooke]

Turbo Tax here, too. 2 years ago, we did them with Turbo Tax and it said we owed a bunch of money. So we went to a tax place and they did them for us, with the same type of software, and it came out that we owed the same amount. So now I pretty much trust Turbo Tax and just do it myself.

[TtownAnne]

I use a private accountant, and pay him with dinner and sex.

(note: he *IS* my husband! :rotflmao: )

[Nocona]

My degree is in accounting with an emphasis in tax, so I have to do them myself or I'd be embarrassed :lol:

[AmyP]

I use a private accountant, and pay him with dinner and sex.

(note: he *IS* my husband! :rotflmao: )
:lol:

I use a private accountant and he likes it when I call him "Daddy." (probably because he IS my dad!)

[SarahK]

My FIL is a CPA and does our taxes...but Brian has promised me this is the last year we'll have him do them. I hate that he knows so much about our finances. We did a corporate relocation last year, so that complicates our taxes..otherwise he wouldn't be doing them this year.

Nocona, he asked for a copy of the closing statements for our condo and our new house. Any idea what info he needs off of there? I'd rather just give him the required info rather than the actual closing statement.

[kim]

I use a private accountant, and pay him with dinner and sex.

(note: he *IS* my husband! :rotflmao: )

well damn, i was just going to ask for a referral! :lol:

[Dawnie]

My sister is an accountant so we give them to her and she uses Turbo Tax. We pay her with dinner and occassional free babysitting.

Dawn

[Ami]

Sarah I bet needs them to determine if you have to pay taxes on what you made on the sale of your condo, if you invested in a new home you don't have to claim a profit (up to a certain amount) on the sale of your condo.

We used Turbo Tax last year and will use it again this year and file online :aok:

Nocona I have a ? for you, I will PM you.

[Ami]

You girls gave me a laugh :lol:

[Nocona]

Nocona, he asked for a copy of the closing statements for our condo and our new house. Any idea what info he needs off of there? I'd rather just give him the required info rather than the actual closing statement.
Dear lord, woman, I graduated 10 years ago and I haven't ever done any public accounting :lol:

hmmm... he needs them to check for capital gains at least. Also, you can write off some inspections, etc. and those would be listed on the closing statements.

I'd hate to have relatives do my taxes :errr: My dad asks me all the time how much I make. I tell him $2/hr :lol:

[Leslie]

I use turbo tax. I'm a bean counter by trade. :) Although I'm not a CPA nor do I ever work with taxes in my career. Yuck!

[SarahK]

I figured asking you was worth a shot...sorry, though--I just realized that's like asking a friend who's a doctor for a diagnosis over the telephone. :blush:

and yes, having a relative do them isn't anything I would advise.

[Nichole]

I do ours, and I use Turbo Tax as well. I like how once you use that program, it automatically enters all of your personal info into the next year's return.

[Dennis]

We use an accountant. She asks for our closing statements from refinancing because you can write off some of the closing costs.

Dennis

[SarahK]

Thanks, Dennis...I'm thinking I'll just have to bite the bullet and hand over those statements.

[Nocona]

Yep, like I said inspections and maybe even title insurance is deductible. I assume you guys itemize, otherwise, run away from him :lol:

Sarah -- it's not problem, I don't use my degree at all any more, so it's not like asking a doctor at all. Hopefully they use their degrees :lol:

[Karri]

dh does them using turbo tax. we can never file early...never fails that we are always waiting on some damn document that gets lost in the mail. then we end up owing like $2k and wait till 4/15 to file anyway :lol:

[sheila]

We use a private accountant. This is the first year that MIL won't be in the room when we do our taxes, and I am so happy about that (Sarah, I feel your pain!).

BTW--she used to be in the room with us because that's they way she & DH (my DH, her son) had always done it. And he didn't want to offend her by asking her to leave.

[SarahK]

Out of curiosity, how much do private accountants typically charge?

[Stacy]

Rick's accountant does our taxes. I am not looking forward to the amount this year. It will be higher than 2002 'cause Rick made more in 2003.

[Toni]

We have a CPA do our taxes. I like to get them done early too!

Sarah, I think our CPA charged us $95 last year.

Toni

[Lyndee]

My turbo tax days are over-- I just don't even want to spend any of my own time dealing with taxes! We've used a CPA for the last 3 years. I hesitated to pay the $225 the first year but after seeing how much happier I was, I didn't mind paying someone else to do it! Our CPA charged $250 last year.

We're actually using a different CPA this year who is a good friend of our financial planner (my plan is to just get the two of them talking so we don't have to deal with anything). I forgot to ask how much he charges but I'm sure it won't be any cheaper. Our taxes may be done early this year but the IRS is not getting their check until the 15th. We've had to pay the last 2 years!

[Jayne]

DH uses Turbo Tax..we usually get a great refund back..And so far so good doing the taxes ourselves so I can't wait to get them going.

jayne

[Lora]

DH does them and then E-files at the office. I don't worry too much about DH getting them wrong because taxes are his business. I hate to admit it but he is employed by the IRS as a tax examiner. :blush1: He really is a very nice guy so don't hate him or me too much!

Lora

[Barb]

We have an accountant do ours. Her husband is our insurance agent, and she only charges us about $20.00 to do it.

[Amy]

I use Turbo Tax to do ours, and EFile, which is awesome. I also do my inlaws...MIL was using paper & pencil and refused to itemize :eek: so DH & I offered to do them for them. Last year they took out a home equity loan and I know if I didn't do her taxes, she wouldn't take advantage of her eligible deductions. :rolleyes:

[AahRee]

I do ours, and I use Turbo Tax and eFile as well. Last year and this year, I'm going to have some home-based business expenses to deduct, and I was even able to use Turbo Tax for that, so I was really pleased with it. We got a great refund, and expect another great refund this year. :)

[kim]

i think our cpa charges $175. i'm not positive but i know it's not over $200.

[Shanna]

I do them on TurboTax and have for the past.... 7 years? Its so much easier. I usually end up doing my sister's too... We're going to have alot more deductions this year with the twins medical bills and my son's and mine. Hope we get a big refund this year too :)

[Tricia]

I use turbo tax and efile them. I love that all my info is just carried over from year to year. I have already inputted this year's numbers and it looks like we are going to be getting a sweet refund. We are waiting to officially file until my w-2 comes ( I used my last paycheck for the year). When is the last day that companies have to send w-2's?

[Dennis]

I thought you were supposed to receive the w-2s by the end of January.

Dennis

[Nocona]

They have to be post marked by 1/31 or they can get fined.

[Shel]

I use a private accountant, and pay him with dinner and sex.

(note: he *IS* my husband! :rotflmao: )
I have a private accountant and I make her husband pay me with dinner and sex


(of course, that accountant is me)


Kim, if your CPA is charging you $175, you are getting raped and robbed. I only charge between $50-$100, as do most of the people I work with

[kim]

fook :complain:

[Shel]

fook :complain:
Well, that's another word for it :rotflmao:

[Mandi]

We have an accountant. We've done the Turbotax thing too, but our accountant is always able to get us at least another $1,000 more every year. Well worth the money.

[Wendy]

My CPA is a really cute guy that charges me by driving me crazy for the rest of the year....and the occasional dinner :lol:

Anne- please dont tell him that you pay yours with sex.......then he really will drive me nuts!!

[harmonielyn]

I filed our taxes online through H&R block.

[mommypam]

My DH uses TurboTax and EFile. We just did them last night and got an awesome return :) The first year that I knew DH I used his family's accountant, and I ended up owing, so we no longer go through the pros.

[Jst1cin]

Since our taxes are so easy I just use Turbo Tax. My grandmother buys the program and whoever wants to go to her house to use it does and she makes us dinner while we do our taxes. :)
I can't see paying to get them done since they are so easy to do.

[CARLA S]

We use TurboTax

[MizLacey]

I do my with pen and the forms. I don't itemize so it takes me about 30 minutes per year, including scanning them before I mail them.

A friend ran them through Turbo Tax one year for me and Turbo Tax said I had to pay more than I figured, and when I checked with IRS, I was right. I'll just continue to do them by hand until I need to itemize or buy a house. Then it will make sense to hire someone :)

Fascinating that so many people use the same software!

[JillMelissa]

I use Turbo Tax. I am still so proud of myself... I am soooo not the math person. But in my job as a mortgage underwriter, I spent so much time looking at other people's tax returns (to determine their qualifiable income) that it seemed silly not to do ours. Fortunately they're not super-complicated... DH makes a zillion stock transactions a year but he keeps incredibly meticulous records so that makes it a breeze.

[Kate]

i think our cpa charges $175. i'm not positive but i know it's not over $200.
Kim, The accountant that does our taxes charges $75. He is in downtown Natick.

[harmonielyn]

I tried turbotax just for the hell of it and it was the same thing i did on the H&R block website. Pretty much the same layout and questions plus the same amount of the return.

[Nocona]

Turbo Tax and Tax Cut are VERY similar. Tax Cut is put out by H&R Block. It's a little cheaper than Turbo Tax and you get a rebate for your state program (to get it free) and a rebate for your federal online filing ($14.95). So, essentially it's $19 or so total, unless you file your state online and then it's whatever that fee is. I owe $23 ( :rolleyes: ) so I'm doing it snail mail, obviously.

[harmonielyn]

Our federal efiling was free because DH made under a certain amount of money last year. State will cost but we'll probably be doing that snail mail too. Federal is the big one so thats the one we worried about first, now I need to take time to file the state. :lol:

[Jenn]

I hate tax time! I usually use Turbo Tax but we owe again this year and we have a ton of deductions so I think something is wrong. We also own a rental property and I don't think I'm deducting everything that I could be, so I'm on the lookout for an accountant this year to do our taxes for us.

[Kris]

I am trying TurboTax but having problems with some tax questions. Where can I go for help?

[Hilary]

I think there is a link on the side of the screen if you need help. Hold on, I'll check mine.

[Hilary]

Yes, on right side of the screen there is a link that says help and info center.

[Kris]

yep but i have complicated questions :( and that didn't help me

[Hilary]

Have you checked here?

http://www.irs.gov/

[earocks]

We have gone to H&R Block for the past several years, but I am tired of shelling out all that money so we are going to use TurboTax this year.

[Erica]

Ours is very basic and simple so i either just do it myself (with a little frustration of course) or we pay the $35 and buy Quick Tax (which I am guessing is pretty much the Canadian equivalent to Turbo Tax). If I buy the software I usually end up doing mine and Wills as well as my moms and brothers taxes with it.

[Lyndee]

Out of curiosity, how much do private accountants typically charge?

We just saw our new accountant yesterday. The fee is a minimum of $300 but he can't give me the exact price until after he's done.

[Dawn]

We have gone to H&R Block for the past several years, but I am tired of shelling out all that money so we are going to use TurboTax this year.Same here! H&R Block are rip offs....never again!! Years ago I use to go to a Private Accountant, but I moved further north so I haven't used him since.

FOr this year's taxes, I finally found a Private Accountant around here that I liked and ours will be $150. :)

[Tina]

DH does ours using Turbo Tax and we always get a very nice refund. Ours are on the more complicated side with the investment properties, etc but it's much better than paying someone to do it for us.

Tina