Tax advice?

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
Oy, I feel like I'm getting old when I post a thread about taxes on the forums.

Age aside, I was wondering if anyone might have advice on where to get my taxes done? I loathe paperwork and taxes are possibly the worst kind of paperwork. I'm willing to spend a few dollars to just hand over all my forms and have someone else do the work.

Can anyone recommend a reliable and fairly-priced tax preparation business? I'm currently living in a small town (about 25,000 people), so my options may be limited. I'd prefer to go with a chain, if only for peace of mind.
 
I think we used taxcut. I sat down for about 30 minutes and had it all done even with the extra stuff I had to do with my business.
 
I used the H&R Block software, TaxCut (hey, I'm just like Vibro) and I've been using it for the past 4 or 5 years now. It took me a bit longer than vibro, because I had a bunch of junk to enter so I could determine if I'd get more money back from itemizing versus standard deduction. Then I had more papers because I moved for a job, bought a house, have student loans, childcare expenses and now have to pay a State's income tax. Yet even still, I was done in less than an hour or so, and was able to print out my documents and now they're jsut waiting for me to sign them.
 
actually taxcut for us messed up(first time ever) They said we were getting one amount..then the IRS mails us a latter saying we were owed much more. I have yet tot alk to hr block about that one..<G> I want my filing fees back..:)
 
I've used Turbo Tax for the last 10 years or so. Before that, I'd alternate between TurboTax and TaxCut.

Unless you have a business or a complicated financial situation, it shouldn't take you too long.

I don't trust tax preparers.
 
If you don't have anything TOO complicated, and you pretty much know what you're doing, you can actually file online for free at a number of sites. You can find links from the IRS website if you google "efile."

If you need help with it, I personally work for Jackson Hewitt (one of the big chains) as a tax preparer (thanks for your support, Aleron ;)), and we offer some nice services on top of preparing everything for you. Everyone's different, but I can get most people's done in 30 minutes tops, so it's not a time-guzzler, and the prep fees would be $50-$100.

There's my little plug. :D Accounting is my think IRL, so if you have any questions, feel free to PM.

-Chadley
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I loathe tax preparation, but if it saves me a decent chunk of change, I guess it's best to just suck it up and do it myself. My taxes should be straightforward. I don't plan to itemize deductions, I worked at the same company for 8 months of 2007, and my wife's a student. My only major concern is missing some tax rule that allows us to recover all or nearly all our taxes because of her status as a student.

What are the limitations on e-filing? If I can get away with doing it for free, then I'd prefer to do that.

TheChad1215 said:
There's my little plug. :D Accounting is my think IRL, so if you have any questions, feel free to PM.
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/me kidnaps TheChad and appoints him to serve as CGA's Accounts Manager
 
if you file 1040ez then online filing is free as mandated by federal law..you can get the list of vendors the irs allows to do this at irs.gov.
 
Hmm, why not just evade the Government and play TF2 from Canada? Oh, right, that "responsibility" stuff. :p I think my parents just do everything the old way... and maybe a tax program? H&R block I heard aren't that great. :X
 
Keero said:
Hmm, why not just evade the Government and play TF2 from Canada? Oh, right, that "responsibility" stuff. :p I think my parents just do everything the old way... and maybe a tax program? H&R block I heard aren't that great. :X
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Because an American citizen has to pay taxes even if he's living abroad.
 
Aleron said:
Unless it's foreign earned income. For 2007, you can exclude up to $85,700 ($171,400 for joint returns).
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You still hve to pay taxes on that income in your home tax country abroad. In the end, you are not paying US tax on the $85,700 \ $171,400 but any amount above that, you are paying the home countries tax and US tax. And even then, its more complicated then that. On a cursery review of your statement, I find there are all kinds of complications, exemptions and "if \ buts". And I don't specialize in American ExPat taxes.
 
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Gods_Peon said:
You still hve to pay taxes on that income in your home tax country abroad. In the end, you are not paying US tax on the $85,700 \ $171,400 but any amount above that, you are paying the home countries tax and US tax. And even then, its more complicated then that. On a cursery review of your statement, I find there are all kinds of complications, exemptions and "if \ buts". And I don't specialize in American ExPat taxes.
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Yep, it's definitely more complicated, but I didn't want to quote all of IRS Publication 54. For those that have insomnia and want a cure, here's a link to Pub 54 :D
 
Watching the news one night they give a little tax secret I never knew. If you go to the IRS website and look around a little bit (I've only been told and haven't confirmed this yet) there are options that tax prep. companies don't tell you. Like the fact that most middle class Americans are in the category to have free filing services at any tax prep location. They want to make money so they don't tell you but you can request free services and they have to provide. I've yet to confirm this but I'm looking into it. I just simply use Taxact online filing state and federal cost me 22 bucks, plus they'll save my info from this year for next years and makes filing really fast when I don't have to enter all the data over and over again.
 
Whon said:
Watching the news one night they give a little tax secret I never knew. If you go to the IRS website and look around a little bit (I've only been told and haven't confirmed this yet) there are options that tax prep. companies don't tell you. Like the fact that most middle class Americans are in the category to have free filing services at any tax prep location. They want to make money so they don't tell you but you can request free services and they have to provide. I've yet to confirm this but I'm looking into it. I just simply use Taxact online filing state and federal cost me 22 bucks, plus they'll save my info from this year for next years and makes filing really fast when I don't have to enter all the data over and over again.
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There's no way that can be true. Tax Prep companies like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt have a slim enough margin as it is (cause they're only in business 4 months out of the year). It's true that you can prepare and file taxes YOURSELF for free if your AGI is less than 54k, but I don't think you could actually force someone to prepare your taxes for you.

-Chadley
 
Whon said:
Watching the news one night they give a little tax secret I never knew. If you go to the IRS website and look around a little bit (I've only been told and haven't confirmed this yet) there are options that tax prep. companies don't tell you. Like the fact that most middle class Americans are in the category to have free filing services at any tax prep location. They want to make money so they don't tell you but you can request free services and they have to provide. I've yet to confirm this but I'm looking into it. I just simply use Taxact online filing state and federal cost me 22 bucks, plus they'll save my info from this year for next years and makes filing really fast when I don't have to enter all the data over and over again.
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http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html

I think Efile providers can charge what ever they wish for use of the service.
 
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