I know I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch or the sharpest tool in the shed, but I think I'm somewhat of a competent and capable person. If I don't know how to do something or I have a question about something I can usually figure it out on my own thanks to the wonderful World Wide Web. I'd like to think I'm independent, organized, and self-sufficient. That being said, I find it a bit lame that I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO MY OWN TAXES! I HATE TAXES! I HATE HATE HATE THEM!
Sorry 'bout that... just a li'l Paige Rage...
But seriously, I can't be the only person in the good ol' US of A who struggles with this? I have a million different forms in front of me: W2s and 1098s and 1099s and IRAs and hospital bills and car registrations and on and on and I input them into Turbo Tax just like it instructs me to and then at the end it says I owe 2 hundred c-notes! That's just to the Feds - don't forget state taxes to CA and UT! And Turbo Tax fees!!
PS - Remember last December '09 when I blogged about taxes biting us in the butt? That was just the Feds. Utah state came after me about my 2007 taxes a couple weeks ago. Taxes that I did wrong in 2007 they are JUST NOW getting after me about in 2011. FOUR YEARS LATER!
PPS - It's not my fault my taxes were done wrong! But I'll save you the gory details.
So how do YOU, oh mighty and wise blog readers, file your taxes?
Turbo Tax?
H&R block?
Print all the forms and figure it out yourself?
Hire someone?
Have your hubbies do them? Hey Chriiiiiiiiiiis!
I'm thiiiiis close to saying forget Turbo Tax and going to H&R Block or paying someone to do them for me. I can't handle the stress!
We do them with one of the e-file websites...I can't really remember which one. I think it's not too bad, but our taxes are also pretty simple. We don't have many forms and we haven't actually made enough yet in any year of our marriage to make itemizing our deductions worth it. I know that my parents have always paid someone to do their taxes because my mom really, really, hates doing them and it makes her life much less stressful. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI use turbo tax, but Eric says we should try to use someone one year and see what happens... I don't know about that.
ReplyDeletewhen we were first married taxes were cake and I did them myself. But as we got more student loans and moved to Utah it got more confusing. I did them myself for 2 years no problem. But One year my husband's brother did them for us and another year we hired someone because my husband had to do the 1098's (i think thats the ones where you don't get taxed on your checks so you have to do it at tax time) and I wasn't about to try that. Then last year I tried to do them myself, but again we were doing UT and AZ, school and 5 different jobs. We were going to owe up the wazoo so I went to H&R Block. I think I paid $400 but got $2000 back! And now with a house we can itemize.... ya not doing it myself again. I guess I better start figuring out who to go to this year. I reccomend going somewhere this year since you have the baby, school and all that fun stuff. You might actually get something back instead of just owing. :) And if you go to H&R block try not to choose the OLDEST guy there who struggles with the computer and pecks at the keyboard! I literally had to walk to guy through his own dang program. And if it's done wrong IRS goes after them. :) Unless of course you fudged info, but I know you wont.
ReplyDeletePaige - did a little research - if you use an online thing and you don't file your forms, but could print them out... HR will give you a second opinion for $29 bucks. If they find mistakes, they'll tell you - that may be worth it if you want to save a little.
ReplyDeleteHi I'm a blog stalker and HR Block believer. They made a believer out of me last year, and just last night I went to get my taxes done this year and I LOVE them. Last year my taxes were super complicated so I just decided to pay to get it done. I had the nicest tax preparer who gave me a "first time to HR Block discount". So it wasn't expensive at all and she found all these different ways to get me more money back. Ways that I would have never seen. This year my taxes were super easy and I was in and out in 20 minutes with a nice refund ready to be deposited. I fully support H&R Block. And I fully support your blog. Love it!!
ReplyDeleteI know I live in Canada and all, but how I file them is still something I can talk about. In the past few years when my husband and I were in school, we got ours done at H&R Block (the student discounts were really good). Last year Justin did them with Quick Tax (or some sort of computer disc thingy) which worked well for us. We've constantly been having to pay back money each year, I think last year was the first year that both of us got money back (Justin normally always does). This year my mum is working at H&R and they can do free taxes for family members (at least here they can). Which will really be helpful. I know there is no way I could do it myself, and give you big props for even attempting it!
ReplyDeleteYa would Chris do them?
ReplyDeletePaige, I can seriously help you and look over your turbo tax stuff, just to make sure everything makes sense and you didn't miss anything. Taxes are what I do for my job!
ReplyDeleteWe have a tax guy we go to each year(so does my sister and her husband)- he charges approx $100 for a "married filing jointly return", we too have all the forms under the sun, and I have a business Tax ID that I sometimes use (your fee may differ depending on the schedules he'll have to create for you). He is really good and goes over all scenarioes, tries to get u the biggest refund or make your tax payment the lowest possible - all within the legal limits ofcourse! You are in So Cal so he won't be too far from you. He's in La Habra,CA- maybe give him a try 1 year and then see if you can't do it on your own after that. Plus, he's a "small business", I would rather give him the work than the big H&R block. Here's his info, ask for an appt w/ Ernie!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.manta.com/c/mmcn8tr/economical-tax-service
we have someone do them for us. we bought a house a few months before we got married and it was a duplex so we had renters living there as well. and we were students. and since then we keep moving around, we've like about fifty billion jobs, we sold our house, and chris is in school again. plus if you have investments or anything else like that it gets really tricky too. i know it's not the case for everyone, but for us, it's totally worth it because we come out better financially (and mentally!) hiring someone else. good luck!
ReplyDeletewe used turbotax last year - and ended up paying like $1500 PLUS we had to pay $1500 this year in advance. Pissed. So this year we want to try H&R block to see if it's any better.
ReplyDeletei literally JUST got home from h&r and i'm getting 1600 back!!!!!!!!!!!!! go to h&r
ReplyDeleteSome years Dan does them, some years we've had a service do them. The years we had a tax service prepare them were because we had a lot of medical bills and we wanted to itemize. If we're not itemizing, Dan does them himself. Hope it works out for you!
ReplyDeleteWe do ours at H&R Block! :)
ReplyDeleteTrust me. I feel your pain. We've had all those same things happen to us. David does the taxes with Turbo Tax every year and we end up owning...a ton...every year. One year he did them wrong and they came after us years later & we owed more. Just like what happened to you. This year I've been pressuring him to go to someone for help. Before I was married I did it myself with just paper and was fine, but ever since the marriage, it's been a problem. Now that I waitress, it's even more complicated. No matter what we try, we end up owing for some reason.
ReplyDeleteWe are an H&R Block family, but this year we may do it on our own -- and I'm scared! I hope yours go well.
ReplyDeletepaige rage. lol.
ReplyDeleteor in my terms, peggy ragey.
We go to an accountant in our stake. He's been doing my in-laws taxes for years, so I feel good about going to him. Ben handles that kind of stuff. I just tell him that "I don't want to mess it up."
ReplyDeleteaccountant.
ReplyDeleteI would never try by myself. hated math when I was 10 and still hate it now.
I usually use E-file, but for some reason it wasn't giving me my Earned Income Credit, which I knew I should get, so I bought Turbo Tax and got all the money back that I knew I would.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely suggest NOT going to H&R Block. In my opinion they are not there to serve your best interest and get you the biggest return (or owe the least amount of moeny) that you deserve. They are there to make there cash. They aren't even trained Accountants, they took a short one to two day H&R Block tax course. I'm in an Accounting program at BC and our PERSONAL TAXES course is one quarter, and that's just starting to touch on taxes, it's not even that in depth. So in short, a one to two day course someone took is not enough for me to trust them with my taxes.
What I would suggest, since your having issues with your 2007 taxes is going to a tax CPA. They will help you amend your back taxes to fix any problems with 2007 (or later years) and make sure you get all the money you deserve. They will probably charge you a couple hundred dollars, but I'd say that would be worth it to not have the IRS come after you in a couple of years.
Hope that all helps! Sorry it was a bit of a novel!
We use the free version of TurboTax online. It's very basic, and even a blonde like me can get most of it right :) That being said, If you get really flustered with all the forms I would consult a CPA. Especially with your 2007 taxes.
ReplyDeleteWe usually have to pay a couple hundred in taxes, but our return is always worth the expense.
I feel your frustration. We just got done with school but stil have to deal with all that garbage. And yes, my hubby is always right there with me. This is a 'WE need to do it together' chore :)
Keep it simple; keep it real.