Community Chat

[Mombo1]

My mistake.. Thank you for clarifying.  Yes over 50...AARP Tax Aide to participate.  Wish I had been aware of this program earlier, but I feel confident that the trained volunteers do an excellent job for those who have the moderate income and simple taxes.  

[Group 5 minus 1]

This is an amusing story about taxes and OT. When my older son was in high school he took a class on finance. One of their assignments was to pick an income and do your taxes. He picked an income below the poverty level and did not have to do his taxes. 

[Carmie]

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@bonnielu wrote:

Have CPA doing our taxes. I would rather pay him to do it right than do it myself.  The mistakes I would make would cost more than his fee.  That is how I feel.  Gives me a peace of mind. Every year we get a large refund, state and Federal.

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If you get a large refund every year, your CPA should be advising you that you are giving Uncle Sam a tax free loan.

Your withholding is way too high.  I know many people like to get a big refund because they view it as bonus money, but is a big mistake.

[qualitygal]

My husband use to do them on the computer and got tired of it, plus changes that came about, and now, he prefers someone else do it.  I'm fine with that.  

[Sweetbay magnolia]

We have used a CPA for years.

We prefer it that way.  We feel it is money well spent (and the fee was deductible but I think no more).

Our state is behind on tax reform (I'm talking decades) and this year could be interesting because of changes to the federal code.

I'd rather not have to worry over it.  

[Carmie]

I do our taxes, my sisters taxes and taxes for one of my sons.

It is pretty easy.  Here in Pennsylvania, there is no state or local tax on retirement income, just Federal.

My DH and I receive income from my business, two retirement incomes and SS, plus he works 3-4 days a week. We also we own two rental units.

Ond year My DH got a hairbrained idea that we should pay someone after I had done them because he felt I was doing something wrong.  Well, it cost him a hearty fee to find our the CPA and I both hit the same tax figures.

After that, we hasn't said one word.

[Bird mama]

This is the 4th year in a row that I've used turbotax.  I retired at the end of March last year so I had payroll income and retirement income and I will admit I was worried.

Was easy peasy and all of my refunds have been deposited in my account already 

[sunshine45]

i am not retired and dont do my own taxes.....we have an accountant.

my mother is 78 and she does not do her own taxes.....she has an accountant.

[gidgetgh]

My husband and I are both retired and we have an accountant do our taxes. 

I could easily do them, but don’t want to. My husband had his professionally done before we got married so we just continued having her do them.  

[PilatesLover]

I am very angry with TurboTax and TaxAct. You used to have the option to use it only for your federal return. That last few years it has forced me to go on to flling state taxes through it - no way to opt out. I called customer support to complain, go nowhere with the service rep. She tried to help me and her manager essentially told me "tough s**t" 

In my state doing your taxes on the dept. of revenue website is free, quick and easy. TurboTax charged me more for the state tax than the federal taxes.

This year I tried TaxAct which was purportedly $9.95 for the basic package. I knew itemizing our mortage wouldn't help so I didn't need to itemize. My very simple return ended up costing $39.95 because of a very small dividend. TaxAct pushed me right into the premier package with no warning or indication it was happening. No trusts, no rents, no business, foreign, stock sales - one small dividend. 

THEN TaxAct proceeded to zip through my state taxes and charged me an additional $35.45 so my bill, for a very simple return, cost $75.00.  Come on - two jobs between us, a little bit of bank interest, a small dividend and no itemizations!

I'm going back to paper!  Fed up with the both of them.