Tax preparation

We normally do our own taxes but last year we did some things that make doing this years a little more scary. We have 1099 forms this year due to some self employment and it's throwing us off. We also have items we can write off as business expenses.

So who pays to have someone do their taxes? Who do you use? What do they charge? I don't want to pay an arm and a leg but if we can get a bigger return having someone else do it then it would be worth it. I'd really rather not spend more than a couple hundred dollars. Are the big chains like H&R block worth a poop?

The software packages are pretty useful in this case. TurboTax handles 1099s pretty well, and it will also help you decide whether you want to itemize or take the standard deductions.

I looked into being a Jackson-Hewitt preparer - there's some formal training, but I wouldn't expect a chain preparer to be much better than TurboTax. I'd either use the software or find a real tax accountant.

My taxes are obviously a little complicated this year as I moved from the UK to the US in April 2010 and have to deal with taxes in both countries for 2010...

I certainly wasn't going to screw up my first US tax return myself so I found one of the Dave Ramsey endorsed local tax accountants. First meeting was pretty positive, but then I made sure that I had had at least some understanding of what needs to be looked at before I went to see the accountant. Let's see how this goes...

As I've been running a one-man business in the UK for a while, I got used to having a proper tax accountant and I would think that a good one is definitely worth the money you pay them. Easy benchmark is - they save you more than you would have if you did the return yourself, you didn't get charged more than they saved you and the IRS didn't turn up with a set of jewelery connected by a chain...

My wife used H&R Block for her last tax return, but my impression (gained second hand) was a little indifferent. I think that with some of the interaction with the state of CA, a proper tax accountant would have made a bigger difference for not much more money.

last year i had W2 and 1099 income in MI, SC, and IL, as well as business expenses. I did it all on paper, downloading forms from the IRS and all the states. I got a letter from the IRS with my return, which was for several hundred dollars more than i expected. i did something wrong with the revised child tax credit or something like that. in years past, i've used turbotax and have always been happy with it. my sister has been a CPA since 1981 and she uses turbotax.

Most of the folks working the chain preparers are seasonal employees run through a quick "training" course. For the majority of folks that only have one W-2 and always take the standard deduction, that's good enough.

If you have anything unusual, I would suggest going to an accountant.

Turbo Tax.

I've got "investment income" (HA) and Turbo Tax makes it easy to import all that stuff automatically. I like it!

I only had a W2 and something for student loan interest and turbo tax had everything done in under an hour.

I am still waiting on a W2.. unfortunatly, the place I made the most amount of money at

We've had the opportunity to compare TurboTax to human preparers for several years and TT always comes out on top!

As a lender we keep copies of TT so that we can check people's tax returns.

No, we don't print up fraudulent returns to submit. 100% of all mortgage loans require a copy of the actual tax return filed with IRS to be pulled and compared to the returns submitted.

What we have helped them do is to figure out how to maximize the refund if they need money for a downpayment or closing costs or whatever.

If they are self employed, commissioned, contract labor or whatever we use that to show them how they should be filing their taxes so they can qualify for a loan.

BTW if you itemize you won't be able to file taxes until about March. Obam didn't sign the tax extension in time for IRS to be able to put together the tax tables. IRS says it will be the last few days in Feb or the first few in March before they even have the tables.

Taxact.com

Been using it for years, a few years ago it handled 3 different employers, a qualifying move and some other stuff fine

Also less than $20 for state and federal.

TurboTax.... 100% if State Farm is your insurance agent.

Bonus: your data is saved year to year

1099s, w2, mortgage papers, etc. plug the numbers in and hit next.

Grtechguy wrote: TurboTax.... 100% if State Farm is your insurance agent.

Could you please clarify this?

I like TaxSlayer.com

Never used TurboTax so I can't compare the two.

Looks like I owe a bit of money this year. About twice what I had to pay last year.

Hocrest wrote:

Grtechguy wrote: TurboTax.... 100% if State Farm is your insurance agent.

Could you please clarify this?

Because it's usually free to State Farm insureds.

is it free to statefarm insureds? I will have to look into that

Looks like you might have to be a State Farm Bank customer: http://www.statefarm.com/landing/turbo_tax_10.asp

form 8839 is kicking my butt.