Doing My Own Taxes?

I've used someone the last 20 years. Most recently I had a CPA that was doing it. At the time I had RSUs, stock options and other complicating factors. However her rates kept going up over she started at $150, last year it was $450 (didn't bother telling me until after we were done). It was always sort of a pain to get everything to her, then I'd have to review it anyway. This year I bought TurboTax from Costco for $65ish. Took me about an hour and they were done. I've heard of others using FreeTax and pretty happy with it. I'll probably stick to TT for now, it walked me right through everything.
 
Ian S said:
I started using TurboTax when it was owned by Chipsoft back in the 1980s. Around the turn of the century, I switched to Taxcut which name H&R Block eventually dropped. Either is fine to use for the vast majority of individual tax returns. TurboTax is generally more expensive. Both walk you through an orderly questionnaire and keep track of your taxes as more data is entered. It's really quite easy. They make it easy to do state returns by transferring all the necessary info. Almost always, you can file electronically both federal and state. I make use of an obscure state tax credit for which H&R Block doesnt provide the form. So I just print the return and mail it in.
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This year I switched from H&R Block to TT.
Generally I feel TT would ask me questions in the interview, but didn't supply any help/suggestions as to why they are asking or what a yes/no really implied. Basically I felt left hanging in space. This contrasted from my feeling with H&R Block as it seemed to have more ongoing info.

However, TT did handle the foreign tax credit better, had a lot of help description to make it work right (order is important). This could use a LOT of re-work to make it smoother and easier to do.

TT did also handle Canadian RRSP income, has a separate entry for it, very important for states like IL that don't tax retirement income. H&R Block ignores this issue. I'm looking forward to not correcting IL tax dept going forward.

TT is bit annoying with constant desire to sell some upgrade along the way, I had deluxe version. They seem to prey on people's fear of missing out, maybe this is why they have more sparse help/info as the interview progresses. A marketing tool.
 
I am just finishing my Turbo Tax return for this year. It says I need Turbo Tax premium Live for $199. I understand premium upgrade due to the same of stock. But I don't need or want the live. Is there an option for less than $199?
 
lakerunner said:
I am just finishing my Turbo Tax return for this year. It says I need Turbo Tax premium Live for $199. I understand premium upgrade due to the same of stock. But I don't need or want the live. Is there an option for less than $199?
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TurboTax tries to upsell continuously, and it never ends. Just about every screen offers version upgrade and the offers for live support are rampant.

Selling stock is nothing unique and doesn’t warrant live support. My guess is this is just their bothersome upsell.

edit to add: If you’re finishing up using TurboTax and ready to file, you don’t even need Premium. Deluxe is fine.
 
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Just finished ours.... 1st year since starting back doing ours that we didn't qualify for free filing...
After the dust settles getting about $650 returned
 
Got my refund yesterday. Less than 3 weeks after I sent my paper return in by snail mail. Fastest ever.
 
The situation so far:

3/6 In-person meeting with CPA. Identified disagreement on HSA contributions.

3/9 Sent email with my analysis and suggested changes to HSA worksheet.

3/11 Sent a second email with my analysis and suggested changes to foreign income tax credit and two numbers that I think are on the wrong lines.

3/17 Called CPA office. Went through the previous timeline. Later that day I received an email from the CPA saying she had seen the 3/9 email and would respond "shortly". I replied via email the same day, mentioning the 3/11 email.

3/21 Called CPA office. Was told that the CPA would call me "when she has time".

Not impressed. I don't think we'll be using this CPA after this year. Do Not Recommend.
 
Sounds like you have my old CPA. Seriously, time to drop them. Like today. You can pick up and do it yourself from here - I have for the last 2 years. I spent too much time correcting my CPA's errors. I use TT.
 
lakerunner said:
I am just finishing my Turbo Tax return for this year. It says I need Turbo Tax premium Live for $199. I understand premium upgrade due to the same of stock. But I don't need or want the live. Is there an option for less than $199?
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Huh? I guess DH ignores all the upsell attempts.

Deluxe desktop version works fine for stock sales. Has for years, no problem.
 
TickTock said:
The situation so far:

3/6 In-person meeting with CPA. Identified disagreement on HSA contributions.

3/9 Sent email with my analysis and suggested changes to HSA worksheet.

3/11 Sent a second email with my analysis and suggested changes to foreign income tax credit and two numbers that I think are on the wrong lines.

3/17 Called CPA office. Went through the previous timeline. Later that day I received an email from the CPA saying she had seen the 3/9 email and would respond "shortly". I replied via email the same day, mentioning the 3/11 email.

3/21 Called CPA office. Was told that the CPA would call me "when she has time".

Not impressed. I don't think we'll be using this CPA after this year. Do Not Recommend.
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I mentioned my saga earlier in a different thread, which is similar to yours.

CPA can't figure out how to handle 1,000 catchup to wife's separate HSA account. I can hear the frustration in his voice and he almost suggested we dis-engorge the deposit to save the penalty for over funding. He would have said that had I not interrupted him.

Haven't heard from him in a day or so, so just a second ago I created a turbo tax account, processed the return, and took screen snips of the step by step process and sent them to him. I'm almost sure his system is defaulting to my wife having individual coverage instead of being covered under our family plan. Anyway, I sent the screen snips, step by step. We'll see.

In the mean, crap, was using turbo tax simple. Shocked at how simple. If he can't figure it out I might just file the T T version and be done with it.
 
Wow, can’t believe your CPA is stuck!

Admittedly we had two individual plans and each our own HSA from the get go once ACA began. We never qualified for ACA discounts so never went through the Federal system but signed up directly. So that may have simplified our HSA tax reporting slightly, but still……
Kings over Queens said:
CPA can't figure out how to handle 1,000 catchup to wife's separate HSA account. I can hear the frustration in his voice and he almost suggested we dis-engorge the deposit to save the penalty for over funding. He would have said that had I not interrupted him.
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That’s nuts! Dis-engorge a perfectly legal contribution. I’m glad you went through TurboTax yourself. Yes, it can be very simple.
 
Not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed. My original CPA and I have been together since 1989 and I've always handled their insurance and he did my corporate work and our corporate and personal returns. He did my simple IRA (401k). He's been too my wedding, with us for the birth of our kids, I've been to his kids weddings. He's as close to family as you can get.

2022 he sold the accounting practice to his daughter and partners so he could focus on the retirement and wealth management advisory stuff. The new ownership gave the insurance polies to someone else. OK, I get it.

He never charged fees for our personal returns because of the account values we have with him.

Last year, they charged 225 fee for us and $125 for the adult kids. OK, I get it.

Last year they made a mistake missing our HSA contribution that while was easily fixed, clearly shows we are not getting the same level of quality control.

Now this.
 
Kings over Queens said:
Not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed. My original CPA and I have been together since 1989 and I've always handled their insurance and he did my corporate work and our corporate and personal returns. He did my simple IRA (401k). He's been too my wedding, with us for the birth of our kids, I've been to his kids weddings. He's as close to family as you can get.

2022 he sold the accounting practice to his daughter and partners so he could focus on the retirement and wealth management advisory stuff. The new ownership gave the insurance polies to someone else. OK, I get it.

He never charged fees for our personal returns because of the account values we have with him.

Last year, they charged 225 fee for us and $125 for the adult kids. OK, I get it.

Last year they made a mistake missing our HSA contribution that while was easily fixed, clearly shows we are not getting the same level of quality control.

Now this.
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Kings over Queens said:
I know what's going to happen when I tell my wife what's transpired. :(
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I really respect loyalty - but it should go both ways. And competence is key to any relationship with a service provider. Your DW will understand that. Not to worry - except about finding a good CPA to replace the old one.

Good luck.
 
I had my taxes done by a CPA for years. Prior to retirement we did two things. The first was to work with our CPA tax person to put together a retirement tax plan. The second was to consolidate our investments.

I do our taxes now and have done for the past 13 years. Next year I plan to engage the CPA to review our situation and our go forward tax plan.

I never use an on line version of a tax package. I want the program and the data to reside with me.
 
brett said:
I never use an on line version of a tax package. I want the program and the data to reside with me.
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Playing devils advocate, but if you have the paper (or pdf) return, what is the need or benefit to have the "data" with you?

not being argumentative, but kinda being argumentative, you know?

I very well may just do my own next year, or this year depending on the reply I get from the CPA.

I don't have any "data" from the prior 40 +/- returns I've completed, but I've got the paper returns.
 
I started out filling out tax forms on paper back in the early 90's. I remember going to the library to pick up the forms every year. Then finally switched to Turbo Tax when I bought a PC. Started with desktop, then switched to online. Eventually switched back to desktop so I could edit the forms where needed. Last year I switched from TT to FreeTaxUSA. FTUSA seems more intuitive/the questions seem more straight forward.
 
We have always done our own taxes. We did the old school mail-in paper forms for many years, then eventually switched to EZTaxReturn for several years. I was really happy with them until they messed up the reporting of our Roth conversions. After that we switched to the H&R Block software for a few years, but it was always a hassle to wait for sales and install the software. This year we tried FreeTaxUSA online and were really happy with them. Easy to use, no cost, and we got our return very quickly. Highly recommend.
 
Kings over Queens said:
Playing devils advocate, but if you have the paper (or pdf) return, what is the need or benefit to have the "data" with you?

not being argumentative, but kinda being argumentative, you know?

I very well may just do my own next year, or this year depending on the reply I get from the CPA.

I don't have any "data" from the prior 40 +/- returns I've completed, but I've got the paper returns.
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I also don't use the online version so I have the program and data with me.
I don't want either on some server, that may be hacked or may be unavailable in 2 years when the IRS wants an amendment.
Having the data, allows easy amendment.
 
I screwed up my taxes twice. The interest and penalties weren't nearly as bad as you may think. Last year I messed up the ACA calculations (it was the first time trying to interpret what they wanted). My $3K refund turned into a $800 amount owed. No big deal. The penalty and taxes turned out to be only $18.
The first time was long ago and somehow I missed the basis for one of my stock sales. The IRS billed me $20K. That was a shocker. Once I resubmitted with the actual stock basis, all was well and I owed whatever the actual amount I originally submitted.
So, don't worry too much about making a mistake.... the IRS already knows what you owe.
 
My guy figured it out. Returns are done, 600 fed refund and 1600 state refund. More refund that I prefer but close enough I suppose.
 
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