First SC's of the tax season

[Tama]

Then you can pay the extra fee and if they do it wrong, it's their own damn fault and THEY have to pay for the mistake.

[Argabarga]

I can understand that piece of mind plays into it too, I don't want to get them wrong, but remember, doing so only means you get a letter saying something to the effect of "you didn't pay enough, please remit the difference as we've calculated it"

You don't get "in trouble" in the legal sense of, "see you in court and we're garnishing you're grandkids future paychecks as we speak" unless you DELIBERATELY and EGREGIOUSLY do it wrong, hoping they don't notice, and when they do, you pretend you can't hear them....

[Kristev]

That's why, when I was still working, I always had my taxes done. I didn't want to screw up, miss something, and get in trouble.

[taxguykarl]

I really don't understand why so many people (especially those well in 1040-EZ-land) pay somebody to do their taxes.

I get my share of those. Most simply want the assurance that nothing was missed or don't have the time or inclination to bone up on tax law changes.

[sirwired]

I used to do mine when I was single with no dependents or anything to deduct. Now I'm married, and I own a house with a mortgage, and up until a couple years ago, I had a dependent. I'm afraid if I try to do it myself, I'm going to screw myself out of some money.

There's really not much to it. The tax program asks you about all the deductions, and when you answer yes to having a mortgage, asks you for information from your 1099 the bank sent you. There's a similar process for all the other deductions.

The only time things get a little tricky is with business returns. If you don't have a business or complicated stock sales, personal taxes are almost always pretty straightforward with a computer doing the work for you.

Give it a try this year... I don't believe any of the online software charges you until you want to print or file. Simply compare the results the paid preparer gives you with what the online site says you end up with.

[MadMike]

I used to do mine when I was single with no dependents or anything to deduct. Now I'm married, and I own a house with a mortgage, and up until a couple years ago, I had a dependent. I'm afraid if I try to do it myself, I'm going to screw myself out of some money.

[Cia]

I used to do mine and hubby's until he and my brother took over my Dad's business, now I just give all the paperwork to the CPA.

[Flygon_Trainer]

I just do the free version of certain tax software since my taxes are easy enough, just plug and chug. Handles state stuff too, up to a point.

[MoonCat]

Well, I am very grateful for trained tax preparers. My brain pretzels just looking at those forms. "If column A and column B equal less than $XXX, but more than $YYY, subtract column C and add the total from column D; if they equal more than $XXX, but less than $ZZZ, add column D and divide by 2, but only in months that begin with a Z."

That's what the instructions look like to me.

[Teysa]

I always do my taxes online. My income is well under the threshold to file for free. Next year's taxes will be fun since Montana has a state income tax and I've never had to deal with that before.

[Argabarga]

I'm going to try and do mine this week, because one of these years, my procastinating will get the better of me and the efile site will be down when I need it at the last second...

My locals just got easier this year as my county finally adopted one universal form, used to be that every township collected and then remitted up the line, now, they have one form, available online and at ANY county office that's easy.

My feds have been thru 1040EZ for years, and now that the forms are printable and online, I don't even need to stop at the post office for booklets

States have been Efile for years through the Treasury dept. website.

Of course, having one employer, no additional income and no deductions makes it possible, I'd have more hassle if I was one of those folks that bothered to keep receipts and such, but, to me it's not worth it for a couple bucks. My locals/states always hit within the "don't bother" $2 off area and I usually end up owing a bit (Like, $180) on my IRS because my employer is usualy a percentage point too little on withholds, but it at least keeps me honest to check the math every year. No big.

[wheeitsmee]

I'm guessing a lot of folks go to those places because some of them front you the return for a fee.

Also, I wonder if the guy who wanted his taxes in 3 days thought that if the return turn around time was really, really quick, maybe they wouldn't have time for the money to be intercepted.

[Catwoman2965]

Cat - You can, as long as your AGI is under $60 grand/year

Yup. Mine isn't. I've tried

[EricKei]

Cat - You can, as long as your AGI is under $60 grand/year

[Ophbalance]

Well, in many states, the state taxes are horrible. Here in NC, there is no "EZ" form. The first time I did that one, I did my federal taxes in ten minutes over the phone, but my state taxes took me about four hours to puzzle through THAT mess. I was a dedicated user of TaxCut (now H&R Block) after that. I can't blame an EZ user for eschewing doing taxes by hand in order to avoid such a PITA.

With software, state taxes consist of me selecting my state and hitting "Next" about eight times. (And then dropping it in the mail to avoid the silly $20 state e-file fee.)

Eh, it's easier as of this year due to all the crap they took out of the tax code. It's like a two page form anymore, and almost nothing can be deducted anyway.