Is it worth taking your taxes somewhere to be done?

I use the Tax Act Online, and we own rentals, and my wife is a partner in a business in California. (LLP)

Takes me a couple of hours of data input, and I'm done.

We have used an accountant in the past, but once I was able to see how they did everything, the online software was a breeze.
 
You may want to check with your local libraries and such. Ours have a bunch of retired CPA's that let people sign up to have their taxes done for free. They have to do a certain amount of pro-Bono work in order to keep their CPA. It's as good as paying an active CPA since it's the same thing.

I itemize because we tithe and give to charities and such and our deduction is much higher than the standard deduction for married, no kids, filing jointly. We own everything we have except our house (almost) and so we get to claim the taxes on it, our cars and our mortgage interest. We usually get back a little every year (around a grand or so) and I'd like to get it closer to zero, but I can't w/o messing things up too much.

Just don't screw up because then you have to do an amended return and those suck.

I use TurboTax.com and just do the standard one for $30 or whatever it is. I like it b/c it just dumps all of our info from last year in to this year's return. We just enter our new info and we're done. Takes an hour or so and that's just making sure I didn't screw up.
 
My wife and I used to have our taxes done by a professional. We thought we needed to because we are married and own a home. I got tired of paying the fees so I figured up our taxes myself but didn't file them. I wrote down the refund amounts from both State and Federal that I came up with and stuck them in my wallet. Didn't tell the wife about it. We visited the professional again that year and when she told us the amounts I whipped out the note with my amounts on it. They were exactly the same.

Been doing my own taxes ever since.
 
To quote one of my tax professors "taxation is easy to figure out, start at box #1 follow the instructions and then move to box #2. Any questions? All right then, open your books to chapter 1” That was one hell of a semester.

Scott
 
bmilla35 said:
The federal form was a breeze, but when now that I reached the state tax, I hit something that has me scratching my head. It's called the Untaxed out-of-state purchases or services? Apparently, PA wants me to pay tax on items that I bought online (say, Amazon or eBay) that are out of state but are used or stored in the state. Do I really have to list everything I bought that I would have on record?
Click to expand...

A lot of states are trying to collect sales tax for online purchases.
Not positive about PA, but I doubt they have any way of knowing if you purchased anything. At your income level, its doubtful your online purchases were significant, so if there is a penalty it will be minimal. If you feel you should, estimate a low amount.
The states have been trying hard to get places like Amazon and others to collect the taxes or give them the purchasing information, and as far as I know they have not been successful with either.

I gave in and just did it on TurboTax. I talked to a lady who said their free edition would be all that is needed, so I wasn't going to argue that!
Click to expand...

Good choice and what I was going to suggest...hard to beat free.
When your income gets higher or your taxes more complex, I'd still recommend TT or something similar.
I did my own taxes for years. Thought I was fairly bright and should be able to do it. Finally one year I bought TurboTax and used it. Discovered I had been making an error for YEARS and not paying some tax I should have. :eek:
Fortunately it never got caught, but now I don't think twice about using TT. The time and aggravation it saves, not to mention avoiding errors, is well worth the small amount they charge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top