Posted on 03/05/2015 8:22:09 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
Ask any accountant, and they'll tell you that you should always hire a professional to prepare your taxes. But the continued popularity of online software prep programs would imply otherwise.
For many Americans with simple tax returns, an online tax preparer like H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt may be the smart way to go. Self-filers who use such sites praise their ease, expediency and cost as benefits. But filers with more complicated returns – moved and need to file in multiple states, started their own businesses or had a dramatic change in income or investments – may need some extra help.
So when should you call in the professional tax hitters, and when can you do it yourself? We spoke with three U.S. News readers to find out.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.usnews.com ...
We used the an online tax progranm then went to H&R Block and it was exactly the same except we would have had to pay H&R Block
Thanks for posting this, I wasn’t sure.
Hah!
Never. Never ever. Been doing my taxes by hand for 68 years. And I still hand write them and mail them in. Let those bastards trudge through it. They waste my time. I’ll waste theirs.
And accountants have complimented my thoroughness a number of times, so why even bother if you sit back, read, and learn the tax codes??? Hell, I’ve even corrected the IRS for things they’re doing WRONG, at least a dozen times.
8. The ways in which a great debt, so constituted and applied, will contribute to the ultimate end in view are both numerous and obvious…
(4) A great debt will require great taxes; great taxes, many tax gatherers and other officers; and all officers are auxiliaries of power.
/Rules - Freneau
Can you do ours?!! Ha
I think we pay too much..have been going to same guy for years & trust him but charges an arm/leg.
Depends. If you're a Democrat, then no worries. A Republican? Yes. A Conservative? Don't bother, you're going to jail.
This is easy,
If you are a W2 filer, do it yourself
If self Employed, get an accountant
If you are an Illegal Alien and want to collect the EITC for yourself and 500 of your closest relatives, go to HR Block.
It depends upon how complex your return is and how “sophisticated” you wish to become about your taxes and how much you know about tax law. If you are simply a W-2 worker, perhaps you own a home with a mortgage; you won some stocks or mut funds at a brokerage; you really don’t need to know very much and all your info is largely contained upon your W-4 and brokerage 1099s. TurboTax (and, I assume, because I have never used it) the J-H s/ware is excellent, however, what I dislike about TTax is the idea that in order to prepare most forms, they supply a worksheet. And a sub-worksheet to fill in the worksheet. And a sub-sub worksheet to fill in the sub-worksheet. If you are that anal, great. If not, you can bypass those items. TTax is great because if you buy it sufficiently in advance of 4/15 you can perform some tax planning using it as a “what-if” scenario generator.
I’ve been doing my taxes for year and have had few problems. This year’s dramatic increase in what we owe has me questioning if I should go to a professional to review. I feel like I’m missing something. Has anyone else’s tax situation changed dramatically in the last year?
My wife and I have no kids and make good money between us. I’ve never owed as much as I owe this year. It was a shocker.
Years ago I reached out to a local H&R Block (I was looking for a second job); I’d had tax classes when getting my degree, and had prepared taxes in the past. They basically wanted me to pay for a course, at which point there MIGHT be a job.
No thanks.
In terms of preparing them, I do my own because they are fairly simple; anyone who thinks the paid preparer is a shield against the IRS should be careful. I’ve helped people who were being audited; their paid preparer simply stated he had used the information they gave them (and they alone were on the hook).
My taxes doubled cause I have to pay for someone’s free health care.
Now I hear that money is going to illegals who don’t pay taxes. And moamoasullini thinks he can raise taxes on his own.
If I had a Cessna aircraft. ..........
We have to go back through the calendar and calculate the number of hospital, medical, glasses, & dental, hearing aids and adjustments or medicines + co-pays, trips were made in 2014. Which was not a good medical year for us. Can’t forget that once a month trip to the Navy base for the pain meds X 9. That DOD MANDATE hit Tricare Life over 65 Ret. Military in March last year for daily meds.
Then we sold our old house and carry the note. So that and the new house has to be figured in.
The wife and I are engineers. She wanted to continue doing our taxes after we got married. I said, “Would you want to see an accountant doing machine design?” We have been going to a pro ever since.
I use TaxAct.com. Haven’t had a problem yet.
I have been using Turbo-Tax for years and years.
I’ve never had any issue at all.
You can file electronically .. it’s easy.
Since the SC seems to be set to rule that laws don’t mean what they say, I think I’ll keep my money this year.
We use TaxACT too... have for years.
This year we owe more - but I was unemployed for a couple of months and it’s directly related to not having taxes taken from the paltry amount I got. Figuring 2015 taxes will be closer to even - unless the IDIOT decides to unilaterally raise taxes.
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