S/O Do you do your own taxes?

[MindyD]

I've never been able to convince my husband to let us do our own taxes. From the very beginning when we just had a few W2s a few charitable donations, he insisted on going to H&R to have our taxes done. After a few years, I dropped the discussion because he was dead set on this. Then last year, our tax person was...let's say...less than well trained. It took forever because she had to call her supervisor for every. single. thing. We're not that complicated, I don't think. And it was a ridiculous amount to pay for them to do our taxes! He finally agreed to NOT go back, but he still wants a CPA to do things. So do you do your own taxes or hire someone to do it? Is it worth to find a good tax guy (or girl!)?

[Nakia]

I have always done ours with Turbo Tax.

[Carrie12345]

"We have people."

We used one person at H&R Block every year we lived in NJ, and now use the same person at H&R Block here in PA. If she ever leaves, I'm going to be annoyed, lol.

[Princess Peach]

We do our own unless there is something complicated about them, (ie, when we owned our own business). If we had a simple return, I would absolutely do them on our own.

[AlmiraGulch]

I also do my own with Turbo Tax.

 

It's really easy.

 

Then again, my taxes aren't very complicated. I itemize, have a couple of kids, make some charitable donations, have a little interest and dividend income, and also plenty of business expenses, including a portion of my home for which the annual depreciation must be accounted. Even so...TurboTax tracks all of that and walks me right through it. It took me all of about 2 hours to do my taxes this year.

[FairProspects]

We have always done our own taxes in previous years, but this year we opened a business in addition to dh's job, so with all the added chaos of new deductions we decided to hire a CPA :). (And I am so happy because it will prevent so many fights!)

[kokotg]

We use Tax Act. I don't remember why we originally used that instead of Turbo Tax; at this point we keep using it because we always have and they'll import the data from last year's form. We don't even itemize deductions, so ours are very simple; the only slightly weird part is that my husband tutors for extra money, and gets paid in cash; I remember this being a pain to enter in before, but this year it was no problem.

[Katiebug_1976]

Dh always does ours...and 1/2 the neighborhoods, too.

[Ravin]

I don't do them personally, but DH does. It was a contingency of our getting married--I didn't want to have to mess with doing taxes any more, so he does them.

[Mejane]

We do. Between what little I remember from working one season with Block, hubby researching every last line, and Turbo-tax, we handle it. :001_smile:

[dcjlkplus3]

Turbo Tax - walks you right through it, and if you are nervouse they have audit defense services or something like that, that you can pay a bit extra for.

[Tap]

We bought a house, had our first child, started investing and had various things like EIC that we could claim. This was before Turbo Tax, so we went to HR Block that year. We had adjusted our W4s, and got the least amount back that year, over any other year.

 

We went home, redid everything ourselves just to verify the $$ and found that the preparer was correct, but even with the 'complications' we saw that we could still easily figure it all out. We never looked back. We switched to TurboTax, instead of the paper form many years ago and never hired it out again.

[laundrycrisis]

We use a CPA. Our taxes got complicated the first year of our marriage with us purchasing a home and getting married....then my dad died....then DH was laid off, twice in one year...I changed jobs....DH became a contractor...we had a baby with major medical expenses involved...DH was laid off again and became a contractor again....they have just stayed complicated. We have to file returns in two extra states, so she does all four returns for us. Our CPA has kept us out of trouble, helped us correct mistakes we made during the year...she has saved us more in penalties than we have paid her...with that plus the peace of mind of not worrying about tax goofs she has been worth every penny. Now we call her whenever we have any sort of financial event, just to make sure there is not some immediate tax-related action we should be taking. I would probably not spend the money for just a trained preparer like B Lock, but I am happy to spend it with a good CPA who is very familiar with all aspects of tax law.

[Night Elf]

DH uses Turbo Tax. He is really good with tax information and we have the same type of information every year so there are never any surprises (salary, royalties [really a pittance for a software manual written over 10 years ago], stocks, etc). We'd have to live a very complicated financial life for DH to want to pay someone to do our taxes.

[jenL]

Dh is an accountant, so he does ours.

[Thea]

DH did the taxes until he went to work out of state. This will be our third year having someone else do them. I like it.....he would always wait until the last minute and then be really stressed---this is much easier.

[ChrisB]

We use Turbo Tax, and have for many years.

[LizzyBee]

I voted yes. But in the interest of full disclosure, I am a CPA and this is my 23rd tax season working in public accounting.

[TN Mama]

Dh used to do his own taxes and then I walked in and complicated his life. :D We now have someone else prepare them.

[dm379]

I've always done ours. My accountant FIL used to check them over or help me if I had questions until I was comfortable enough to do them on my own. I use taxslayer now and it is super easy.

[BikeBookBread]

I voted "no" but we don't pay - we use the Base tax center (military).

[Veritaserum]

Dh has always done ours. This year we are using a tax attorney because of some complicated financial happenings last year. Next year we will do them ourselves again.

[3peasinapod]

Turbo Tax! We love it, and have done it that way for probably 10 years.

[KidsHappen]

I needed an other category, of course. For the longest time I did them myself. Then for some strange reason my hubby decided that we needed to use Turbo Tax. We used them for three years and every single year they were wrong. Not enough for an audit but enough that the IRS sent a letter saying we recalculated and this or that was wrong, sometimes in our favor, sometimes in theirs. SO we went back to me doing them and then we had a couple of really complicated years so my hubby found an accountant. I still figured them and then had him go over them and he found us money every single year so far. I don't even think I will bother figuring them myself this year.

[Amy in NH]

I've always done them. All you have to do is follow the directions.

 

The year I filed a 16 page tax form complete with self-employment and rental property I decided to go to H&R Block tax school to become an employee. Their training is half about understanding the forms and half about learning to use their specialized software. Then you have to commit to lots of "training" sessions between Thanksgiving and New Years (when the season starts) so that you can learn how to sell their financial products and refund loans. After a couple of years of that I quit. I have enough to do around the holidays without spending my time learning to be a sales-person. All I wanted to do was the tax part.

 

Anyway - you can save a ton of money and get them efiled for free if you just follow the IRS links through freefile. TaxAct was right every year (I do them out on paper first). They go through all the same questions you'd answer at Block. (Turbo Tax tried to short me - I had to go back and find the right button to allow me to file a regular line item!)

 

I filed mine this year (and last year) on the first day the IRS was accepting efile returns. We got our refund through direct deposit on 1/31.

Edited February 4, 2011 by Amy in NH

[iquilt]

Ours are too complicated, with our business and itemizing and paying estimated quarterly taxes, etc. We haven't had simple taxes since dh went into business for himself.

[Sherry in OH]

Turbo Tax works just fine. It even assigns values to our Goodwill donations.

[ChicoryChick]

I have always done our taxes except the year we bought our house and dh started his business. Then I had my brother who works for H&R block do them. I have done them ever since then and call him if I have any questions. While I did not pursue a career in that field, I do have an Associated Degree in Accounting.

[KS_]

I do ours (TaxActOnline) - dh's stepdad works at H&R Block and so for the first couple of years after we moved back, we had him do them. However, dh would spend a few hours down there w/ him and then I would end up double checking them and finding things wrong, and having to send dh back with the corrections. . .so I ended up just doing them myself. Ours aren't terribly complicated - we do itemize and dh has a small income from a side business. But it's just so much easier for me to work on them that hassle with having someone else do them.

[dirty ethel rackham]

This year, I will be paying someone to do them, but only because we have something wonky from my mom's estate. Next year, I will go back to doing them myself.

[MindyD]

Does anyone know if you're more likely to be audited using something like Turbo Tax? My dh was told this by his accountant friends, but they're trying to get people to pay them to do their taxes so I'm not completely convinced.

[nono]

Since my Dad died, I do them for our family and every 3rd year we have a review with a tax accountant. My Dad was a CPA specializing in small business and personal taxes, and I worked with him for several years during tax season. There's a lot I miss on what is allowed and getting the review works well for us. I would just go on an annual basis, but our lives have been mostly a wreck in the last several years, so that's what we do...not ideal, but pretty good. :)

 

On on our off years, I use the H & R Block software -- whatever it is called.

[mereminerals]

I have done ours for the past 10 years, except for the first year we started our business and then I paid a CPA to do them. The next year I was going to go back to him, but he had retired. I was referred to another CPA and after talking with her she recommended I resume doing them myself as I was figuring all the numbers for her and all she was going to do was input them. We have used TurboTax and TaxAct over the years, but I prefer TaxAct.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Honestly, I was shocked by what people are willing to pay to have them done.

 

My dh is a bean-counter type of person. All our financial data is on Quicken and has been for the last 20 years. He's done our taxes and my mom's as well as numerous friends. He enjoys the challenge.

 

I'm not fearful of an audit, but I'm not looking to have one either.

 

I know many people have them done by a CPA or H&R Block because they think they can just sign them and that if there is anything wrong with them (IRS audit or mistake w/ fines), that they have some "protection" from having a professional do them. I just don't think that is remotely true.

[The Girls' Mom]

We use Turbo Tax. I did use a CPA for 2 years when I ran my own business, but other than that, we do our own.

[elinnea]

We have someone else do them. Dh is a foreign national so it complicates things a bit.

[kamom]

We own two small businesses. No way would we attempt to do them.

[danybug]

I do ours on Turbotax and always have. And I use the free version. I think it guides you through so easily and we even do multiple itemized deductions.

[Hannah C.]

I've used Turbo Tax every year that I've had to pay taxes. This year will be the most complicated year for us tax-wise and I'm a bit worried that some forms aren't accurate, but I'm pretty sure there's no reason for us to hire someone because in reality our taxes are very uncomplicated. That's what comes from being young and not making much money. :001_smile:

[happypamama]

I do ours myself, using one of the software or online programs. No problems. We have paid people to do them in the past, but that was when we had some business expenses to claim and such. I've done them myself for the past several years, and it's been very easy. We don't have anything odd, though, just normal itemized deductions, and they're very straightforward. Our state and local taxes, while annoying because I have to fill out forms for two states (DH works in one; we live in the other), are all very simple as well. I think last year was the first year I filed online; I think I did federal and local that way, but I mailed the two state forms, because those weren't free to do online. In fact, I filled in the federal form the other day, and it took only a few minutes.

[Audrey]

If you don't have anything particularly complicated, there are many very good tax software out there that will walk you through it step by tiny step. We use Quicken and do both our personal taxes and our farm taxes with it.

[KrissiK]

We do our own. We use Turbo-Tax. I'm not sure how complicated it is... we own our own home, have investments, charitable contributions and all that. But, it works out well for us!

[LibraryLover]

Never had anyone do ours. Turbo Tax is the Turbo Bomb. :D

[tantechell]

for past 10 years--HRBlock,We always used the same person-lovely lady but I am really tired of paying between $300-$500 for tax prep. fees!!!

My husband made $37K last year{not well off, but bettter than the alternative}We have a few itemized

deductions, so I really don't think it would be hard to do them ourselves.

[kwickimom]

I do mine and a few friends on taxact. I do them to the very best of my ability and knowledge. If I was to end up getting audited and somehow owe from not claiming,, its not because I was fradulent and we would deal with it. So far, so good and ours are uncomplicated :)

[Kari C in SC]

I do mine and a few friends on taxact. I do them to the very best of my ability and knowledge. If I was to end up getting audited and somehow owe from not claiming,, its not because I was fradulent and we would deal with it. So far, so good and ours are uncomplicated :)

 

This would define me. I do ours, my sister's, my son's (still had to file for him this year even though he is deceased) and then I even did my friend from another state. She just told me all her info over the phone. We were chatting and she mentioned she had an appointment with HR Block. I told her I could easily do hers online. She has the very basic type. I was shocked that she paid almost $500 to HRBlock last year.

 

If we have a mistake, we will deal with it. Everyone's that I did was simple and easy. Ours is a bit more complicated because of a rental property.

 

I am even too cheap for TurboTax. I use their deluxe version because of our rental property - work it all out and then enter the info into Taxact. Turbotax is $50 to use and Taxact is $18. This also helps me double check everything.

[Hwin]

I have always done my own either with Turbo Tax or H&R Block and I've been happy with the results - but we bought our first house in September so I want them done professionally this year.

[Krista in LA]

I do ours using the H&R Block At Home software. It's very easy to use. I did stop paying to use it for our state return however - it wasn't right one year and then we had to pay a small penalty and late fees. We can do our state return free on the state website and if it's wrong, it's their fault.

[Paintedlady]

We've always done our own with Turbo Tax but last year dh started his own business so now we're having them done by an accountant. Nervous about how that's going to cost us though.

[AngieW in Texas]

We've had the same guy do our taxes for a long time now. We used to do our own, but when my dh started a company with a couple of friends, our taxes got more complicated than I was willing to deal with. I was worried about making a mistake.

 

We just send all of our tax stuff to the CPA and he sends us the forms to sign when he's done.