Do you do your own taxes?

[maddythebeagle]

Curious after martha's thread on her 1040 class. I would have guessed that most of this group did their own except the small business owners.

[MRGALT2U]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddythebeagle Curious after martha's thread on her 1040 class.

I believe that I have always done my own personal taxes, but
most of my career was in accounting/finance. I have my small
holding company done by a CPA. I could do them too, but I have
a higher "comfort level" sending them out. That said, I got my
tax prep. bill yesterday (up 150% over 2004), so I may need to reconsider
this next year.

JG

[Spanky]

This reminds me it's time to purchase Turbo Tax Deluxe ( plus state). Office Depot is selling it at $40.

[Robert the Red]

Last* year, I tried TurboTax online thru Vanguard.* Although it helped with the Federal (mostly in doing all those stupid little worksheets in the instructions), I was seriously disappointed when I transferred data to the state form.* There were several mistakes; for example, the portion of the dividends that were interest from Federal interest were not excluded, so I had to do those manually (reducing my taxes), and the municipal bond income dividends were improperly excluded from my state return, so I had to add those back in manually (increasing my taxes).* So in the end, I did the forms on paper and filed as always, since I was now quite suspicious of the details.* This year, will probably stick to paper from the start.

[Outtahere]

With my partnership there is no way I'd be able to do my own taxes. The company CPA does the company taxes then does our individual taxes for free. I tried one year to duplicate what he had done with Turbo Tax, I gave up after 2 days figuring he's the expert.

[Sheryl]

I always did my own- even after I became an S Corporation shareholder. Last year was the first time I finally gave up and hired someone. Got a bigger refund than ever that year.

[LOL!]

We have always done our own. For many years without TT, then with TT. Our forms are not too complicated: Schedules A,B,C,D,D1,SE,E, a couple of K1s, a 2555 in there, dependent care credit, a couple of other odds & ends, etc. Maybe 15-20 pages in all. TT really helps once you get used to it.

I've also used TT to run scenarios of the future: just take last year's info and change it and save to a new file.

Since I've always done my taxes, it does not seem to be a big deal. That's because in the beginning when I was 16, it was pretty easy. Each year thereafter just adds a little incremental new stuff, so now nothing seems new. If I had never done any taxes before and then decided this year to do it myself, I think it would be overwhelming because everything would be new. I think that's a good argument to start out doing your own taxes when you are young.

For Robert the Red, TT allows you to change the numbers on your forms, so you could have changed those details without resorting to doing "the forms on paper."

[CyclingInvestor]

I have always done my own. Even with a fairly complex capital gains/dividend
section (from REITs) and AMT threshold check, it only takes a couple hours
max each year. All previous years calculations and all stock trade/dividend info
is kept in Excel, so each year I just add a new page, go thru and tweak a few
line#s and equations (for rule changes), then copy the numbers onto forms. I
would never trust commercial packages to get everything right, and I do not
like the way they keep all your saved data in a proprietary format to make it
difficult to switch to another package, in addition to occasionally loading malware
onto your system (was that TurboTax a couple years ago?)

[MJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheryl I always did my own- even after I became an S Corporation shareholder. Last year was the first time I finally gave up and hired someone. Got a bigger refund than ever that year.

This is not necessarily related to your big refund but this reminds me of a tax account I used for a couple of years when I started working full time at a "real" job. The 2nd year I went to him, he was bragging about the great job he did to get me a nice refund (ie: keep coming back to me). It was indeed nice, but since my only income was my salary and earned interest, I was curious to see what creative accounting he did to get me the large refund. I found the payroll deductions he was telling to take were too high, so he wanted to get credit for giving the goverment a loan too much money. Thanks for nothing. I dropped him real quick.

MJ

[SteveR]

I don't do my own right now but have done so as well as my MIL's too.

I will do so again in a couple of years but for now it is just easier to have the CPA do them and be done with it. I just give him the data and write the checks.

After ER the checks will be smaller and things will be less complex so I should be able to jump back into that again with not too much effort. Doing them on my own will save a few hundred bucks a year too.

[Sheryl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ so he wanted to get credit for giving the goverment a loan too much money.* Thanks for nothing. I dropped him real quick.* MJ*

Yeah,* KWYM there.* I never know if my firm is going to show a profit or not until late in the year (we convert from accrual to cash, P/L is always a suprise), so I do a lot of extra withholding to make sure I don't get bumped into needing to make quarterly payments.*I really resist that -* I only want to think about the IRS once a year.

[yakers]

I have used TT for several years and it is enough for our somewhat simple returns. One thing I like about TT is that once everything is enteres it is one click to checking if the AMT applies. And the transfer to the state tax was simple for me.

[ShokWaveRider]

Used TT for years, with own company, complex partnership investments, Low income housing tax credits and now FIRED, never had a problem.

SWR

[mickeyd]

When I tell other folks that doing your own taxes as really not that difficult I generally see this* :. A number of years ago, after I first owned* real property, received commissions, moved from a state that had no income tax to one that did I was sure that I would be unfit doing my own taxes. I decided to go to a tax place.* But prior to going there I got all of by papers in order and quickley did a proforma tax return so I would have a rough estimate of what to expect from the "tax professional". I was within $10 of what he produced for a (seemingly) stout fee.

I have prepared my own income taxs every year since that time and have never run into a situation that I could not figure out.* Most of those years were all manual calculation stuff using* an adding machine, IRS booklets and forms.* I have used TurboTax the last 3-4 years and it works fine. The first couple of times that I used TT, I also manually did it and was damn close.

The bottom line as I see it is that most people that I know seem to be bambuzled into thinking that they can not possibly read a booklet, operate a calculator and fill out a few forms with any degree of accuracy.

They would rather pay some unknown guy in a temporary office in a strip mall to do it for them.

[Martha]

What is the difference between TTDeluxe and TTPremier? The TurboTax website isn't clear. Do I need the Premier edition to deal with stocks, rental activities, and K-1 income?

[ShokWaveRider]

Go here and check it out.

http://www.taxesindepth.com/software...-ttdeluxe.html

I have both copies Deluxe and Premier, I am using Deluxe only at the moment. So far so good, but no complex investments this year only Tax Cedits and it handles that.

Why 2? I get them free.

SWR

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheryl I always did my own- even after I became an S Corporation shareholder.* Last year was the first time I finally gave up and hired someone.* Got a bigger refund than ever that year.*

Sheryl,
What additional headaches did you run into when you became an S corp shareholder. Our company switched from a C to an S for 2005. I know I will be receiving a k-1 statement that I will have to report. *

[justin]

I do my own taxes, taxes for family, and I used to prepare tax returns for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance for Spanish speaking clients.

[Sheryl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DOG51 Sheryl, What additional headaches did you run into when you became an S corp shareholder. Our company switched from a C to an S for 2005. I know I will be receiving a k-1 statement that I will have to report. *

It's really not hugely complicated.* Everything the S does carries thru to the owners in proportion to ownership.* The K-1 tells you how much you can report as income, charitable contributions, etc.* *Shareholders have to report health insurance and other benefits as income.* * I ran into a glitch with Turbotax last year probably because I bought the cheapo version, and just didn't feel like screwing with it anymore.

You can do it if you are willing to read the IRS instructions that go with the K-1.*

[HFWR]

Do my own - but nothing complicated...