OT: Tax prep

[cavalot]

How many of you do your own taxes? What do you use?

My wife and I have been using a cpa for several years. Mainly because along with our W2 jobs I have a small LLC so I wasn't sure how to make those things jive.

Already have to pay in a chunk. It would be nice to at least save a buck or two on the prep work.

 

[HuskerInCarolina]

I’ve always “done” my own. I use the term loosely because the sites I used really do most the work, i just plug in numbers. I’ve used TurboTax for the last 15 or so years, mainly because they didn’t charge me to use it because I was active duty. But their prices have gone up the last few years. I went with H&R Block this year. It cost me about half the cost and I paid less in taxes compared to what TurboTax was saying I should. My parents use Dave Ramsey’s service. They didn’t have any gripes with it.

 

[maly]

CPA and former tax preparer here. Just do my own, but I use H&R Block online. Used to be really cheap, but it has gone up recently. They also charge you per form on some things, so I assume a Schedule C business will cost a little more. I think I paid like $80-$90.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

H&R for us....I no longer own any small busniesses so frankly we coukd do them as our taxes are EASY...but my wife wants the security of a pro doing it and I like to see her naked....

 

[big red22]

How many of you do your own taxes? What do you use?

My wife and I have been using a cpa for several years. Mainly because along with our W2 jobs I have a small LLC so I wasn't sure how to make those things jive.

Already have to pay in a chunk. It would be nice to at least save a buck or two on the prep work.

I have done my own since my divorce in 2017... Freetaxusa.com makes it pretty easy and the most you will pay is just over $100 and that is for auditing assistance and professional chat help

 

[cavalot]

I’ve always “done” my own. I use the term loosely because the sites I used really do most the work, i just plug in numbers. I’ve used TurboTax for the last 15 or so years, mainly because they didn’t charge me to use it because I was active duty. But their prices have gone up the last few years. I went with H&R Block this year. It cost me about half the cost and I paid less in taxes compared to what TurboTax was saying I should. My parents use Dave Ramsey’s service. They didn’t have any gripes with it.

You would be shocked at what I paid last year.

I was leaning toward TT but maybe I will look at H&R.

 

[cavalot]

CPA and former tax preparer here. Just do my own, but I use H&R Block online. Used to be really cheap, but it has gone up recently. They also charge you per form on some things, so I assume a Schedule C business will cost a little more. I think I paid like $80-$90.

I paid 10 times that last year. My wife had a little more complicated stuff due to her company being bought out and her stocks being paid out in full. So we took a major hit on income. I just think we have been paying too much for what we basically know going in. We're going to pay up in April!

Just wasn't sure how to tie the W2 to the LLC or if they would both be seperate. Probably could just chat with an advisor on any one of those services.

Thanks

 

[mwulf]

Paid 149 to have a tax expert so like through Intuit. I always take out an extra 400 a month fed and state total to get a return and pay for my summer trips

 

[Huskers123456]

Did my own before turbotax. Now use turbotax but it sounds like I should shop around for a better price.

 

[huskerfan66]

I paid 10 times that last year. My wife had a little more complicated stuff due to her company being bought out and her stocks being paid out in full. So we took a major hit on income. I just think we have been paying too much for what we basically know going in. We're going to pay up in April!

Just wasn't sure how to tie the W2 to the LLC or if they would both be seperate. Probably could just chat with an advisor on any one of those services.

Thanks

Pretty simple. I use TT. Years ago it was professional. Now it's home and business. You can do up to 5 returns per subscription. So you would want to do an LLC business return for each of your businesses first and file your 1065. Take the results of that and then do your personal return including your 1065s and personal w2.

I thought about trying h&r block to see if they'd be cheaper as others have stated, tt prices are starting to become uncomfortable compared to what they were

 

[RBigredMax]

I tried turbo tax back in the day but somehow screwed up multiple things - namely my backdoor Roth Ira’s. No idea what I did wrong but it said I owed like $25k - ended up going somewhere else and I had to pay in $2k - which is where I like to be. Haven’t tried again since.

 

[dinglefritz]

How many of you do your own taxes? What do you use?

My wife and I have been using a cpa for several years. Mainly because along with our W2 jobs I have a small LLC so I wasn't sure how to make those things jive.

Already have to pay in a chunk. It would be nice to at least save a buck or two on the prep work.

TurboTax home and business. I started out with a cpa in 1987 then started doing my own after finding he had made multiple errors requiring me to amend the return. I did them with paper and a calculator back when I had 13 employees and switched to TurboTax then. I ask a CPA that used to work for us for advise every now and then. He’s rerun my returns several times and never found any problems. My return is normally 60+ pages long. TurboTax’s system is all in the cloud now I do NOT like.

 

[oldjar07]

Look up IRS free file and use one of the providers there.

 

[dinglefritz]

Pretty simple. I use TT. Years ago it was professional. Now it's home and business. You can do up to 5 returns per subscription. So you would want to do an LLC business return for each of your businesses first and file your 1065. Take the results of that and then do your personal return including your 1065s and personal w2.

I thought about trying h&r block to see if they'd be cheaper as others have stated, tt prices are starting to become uncomfortable compared to what they were

I had one issue with TurboTax when I had a computer crash but fortunately I had retained the CD case that had my license # on it. One other thing I had an issue with was amending a return back 2 years. They don’t support their software past 2 years so I had to have the CPA that used to work for us in another business refile the return. It was caused by a keyboard glitch that I had the misfortune to discover when doing a later return.

 

[HuskerJag]

I tried turbo tax back in the day but somehow screwed up multiple things - namely my backdoor Roth Ira’s. No idea what I did wrong but it said I owed like $25k - ended up going somewhere else and I had to pay in $2k - which is where I like to be. Haven’t tried again since.

This is what sent me to a pro as well. I could not figure out what to tell the software so that it would accurately reflect the back door Roth. Still use that pro but it’s more spendy than I want.

 

[Vanhusker]

Jeez, apparently I'm getting prison raped. $1500 for CPA to do the LLC (handful of rentals) and regular return for wife and my regular jobs. He will meet anytime non tax season for free business advice but we just don't make as many moves as we used to. Has referred several clients to my wife's practice.

 

[PeliniTheCrutch]

Someone please give me some real advice on us having to buy a new heating/AC unit this last year.

 

[dinglefritz]

Someone please give me some real advice on us having to buy a new heating/AC unit this last year.

You were screwed. Had to do it. The feds change the rules every couple of years so you can’t buy refrigerant for the old unit. I haven’t bought my tax software yet. With an extension I have until October 15th.

 

[LBremser]

Jeez, apparently I'm getting prison raped. $1500 for CPA to do the LLC (handful of rentals) and regular return for wife and my regular jobs. He will meet anytime non tax season for free business advice but we just don't make as many moves as we used to. Has referred several clients to my wife's practice.

I'm paying about the same. TT and H&R are fine if you don't have anything that requires a little tinkering on the forms or an item that is a little unusual. Worth the extra money to me, and I'm not getting any business referrals!

 

[BTF69]

TT is great but man they have gone up in price.

 

[dinglefritz]

I'm paying about the same. TT and H&R are fine if you don't have anything that requires a little tinkering on the forms or an item that is a little unusual. Worth the extra money to me, and I'm not getting any business referrals!

TT HB is pretty self explanatory. You have to buy the right version. I had a couple of semesters of college accounting and have kept up on tax law but still have to ask a question every now and then. The nice thing about TT is I can jockey around with my depreciation options to see what works best that particular year. The CPA I know has always said “by the time you get it to me in a form I can use you’re pretty much done”. I have rentals, schedule C, schedule F, a limited partnership, wife’s W-2, some investments etc.

The key is being able to read and understand the IRS’s rules for any given subject. It’s all available on the net. It’s really not that hard to look up. I don’t blame people who prefer to pay a professional for the feeling of security that comes with thinking someone knows more about your situation than you do.

 

[Sinomatic]

Jeez, apparently I'm getting prison raped. $1500 for CPA to do the LLC (handful of rentals) and regular return for wife and my regular jobs. He will meet anytime non tax season for free business advice but we just don't make as many moves as we used to. Has referred several clients to my wife's practice.

Dang dude you are paying a ton. I pay 180 for rentals to my CPA first back in 2012 and paid 220 last year.

 

[LBremser]

TT HB is pretty self explanatory. You have to buy the right version. I had a couple of semesters of college accounting and have kept up on tax law but still have to ask a question every now and then. The nice thing about TT is I can jockey around with my depreciation options to see what works best that particular year. The CPA I know has always said “by the time you get it to me in a form I can use you’re pretty much done”. I have rentals, schedule C, schedule F, a limited partnership, wife’s W-2, some investments etc.

The key is being able to read and understand the IRS’s rules for any given subject. It’s all available on the net. It’s really not that hard to look up. I don’t blame people who prefer to pay a professional for the feeling of security that comes with thinking someone knows more about your situation than you do.

Understanding the IRS rules was not the problem. I have a background in tax and had the prior years' returns that my CPA firm had prepared as a guide. The problem was that TT's programs couldn't address certain issues. I had 3 long calls with the TT help dept and they finally said that they couldn't make it work right on those points and refunded my payment. That was a few years ago, maybe they are better now.