Wonder how we file your taxes --

I alternate between doing my taxes by hand and using tax software. I don't itemize and pretty much only have a salary as income, so my taxes are usually very easy. Two years ago, I did my federal taxes by hand in about 15 minutes. The hardest part is often the state tax forms, not the federal - I've relocated three times in the last four years, and some states make it very difficult to figure out how to document partial year taxes. That's why I resorted to tax software last year.

A few years back, I took the H&R tax preparer course. It was quite fascinating. Although the preparers at H&R Block use computer software, the class was all done by hand, and I found it rather fun, figuring out how to depreciate assets for a small business or whether you could deduct expenses. I'm sure I've forgotten some of it, but it was very interesting to see what people pay in taxes and how they're calculated. (A little depressing to see what I pay compared to people who have more deductions, but I guess it evens out.) Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the part-time job I was hoping for (all the evening slots were filled by previous employees), so I never got to get paid for my work.

Karen

I have used TurboTax ever since I ran a parallel test with a professional tax preparer and discovered I could save myself more money than he could.

Fuskie
Who notes that professional tax payers are usually using preparation software as well rather than doing it all by hand...

We used to use TurboTax to do it ourselves. Our taxes are quite complicated so we ended up needing the most expensive "premier" version of the software ($72 last year). Last year we broke down and hired a CPA to do it for about $200. It was a relief to hand it all off and have someone else deal with it. He also gave us some tips should save us more in taxes then we spent on his services.

So yes, we are spending more to do it this way. We are consciously doing this to buy back the time spent doing it ourselves (typically an entire weekend) and the peace of mind knowing it was done right.

Regards,

- HCF

Hi YeilB, I generally do my own taxes, and some for friends/family, too. I usually find some free website that is approved by the IRS & file electronically. Sometimes we qualify for free e-file at a state level, too.

I am comfortable doing this because the tax situations I prepare for are simple & I had experience as a volunteer for VITA a couple years ago. Besides, I have been filing my own taxes since I first worked.

492dea
any questions? :)

For the last 2 years I have been going to H&R block. I told this to one of my CPA friends, who said he'd do it for half the money that they charged me, since I don't have many things to deduct anyways.

I've always done my own. Nowadays I use TurboTax or other software, but in the past I did it by hand. My return isn't hugely complex, but I generally itemize deductions and I also have capital gains and losses and dividends and stuff like that.

My parents always do their own as well, by hand in the past and currently with software - and my father used to have a side-business, and they've had rental-properties as well as the usual itemizations, gains, losses, dividends, etc.

It's not all that difficult for me to do mine, especially now with software and the Internet to look up questions about things.

I generally figure that by the time you and gather all the information you'd need to give to a preparer you might as well fill in the forms yourself.

YMMV, of course, depending on the situation.

I use Tax Cut software. I used to use TurboTax but it's more expensive and I was able to pull it all into the Tax Cut. I have pretty simple taxes, salary for income and my house for deductions, and no business expenses so it's pretty quick and easy.

I could do it by hand but with my daughter in college now, I like to be able to play with the numbers and run different scenarios between our files to see what is more benificial for us both tax-wise. For some reason, even with the college credits she can get as a single filer, it still works out better for us for me to claim her as a dependent than us both filing as singles.

So until she moves out and/or finishes school, I'll be doing the software thing.

I didn't my own by hand when I first graduated college until after grad school when a co-worker told me using Turbo Tax only took her about 15 minutes to do her taxes. So for the past 8 years or so I've used software (usually Turbo Tax, but not always).

Hi HCF,

we are spending more to do it this way. We are consciously doing this to buy back the time spent doing it ourselves (typically an entire weekend) and the peace of mind knowing it was done right.

I couldn't agree more. We use my wife's cousin, who has her own CPA firm.
We get the family rate, but our taxes are complicated enough that it still costs me between $150-$200.

I used to do my own until several years ago I spent an entire weekend (at least 18 hours) trying to compute the long-term gains on a mutual fund I had held for about 7 years or so with re-invested dividends. After all this, it turned out my profit was < $100 (it was a lousy fund to boot, with a high expense ratio!) My time was worth a whole lot more than $100/18 hours :)

Ever since then, I've washed my hands of the ordeal and happily forked over the $200 :)

Paul - who very much understands that time is the most precious commodity and refuses to lose any more of it doing boring, tedious tasks for no decent return...

I have used TurboTax to do mine for several years now, but my taxes are not complex at all. One job, rent an apt., have an 18 year old in college, and that's about it.

Donna