What are you doing right now?

[BackLoafRiver]

How hard is it to do your own taxes? For the past 9 years, I had H & R Block do them since I had 2 W-2's. Thought about getting Turbo Tax to do it myself. Not sure if it is worth the effort.

 

[severine]

TurboTax is easy, even with the small business stuff that I have to do. Guides you through it all. Don't do H&R block... heck, a CPA is better than they are. They over-charged us and we over-paid. Granted, that's when we owned rental property, but we paid over $300 to have our taxes prepared and the next year when we saw a private accountant, it was only a little over $100 and we owed far less than the year before. After we sold the rental property, our accountant suggested doing our taxes by ourselves again because she didn't want to take our money for something I could do myself.

 

[Warp Daddy]

When i ran a parallel business in consulting for 20 yrs and had overhead in addition to my fulltime University work i used Turbo ,

Now being retired i do MY own 'commando style" ie no electronic assistance -- but then again i'm into that kinda thing . Not really hard at all if u r organized

 

[o3jeff]

I prefer to go to someone and have mine done. While Turbo Tax will ask you the general questions and if you answer no it just moves onto the next one whereas a good accountant will ask more questions to confirm if you qualify or not. For the $75(single) I get charged = piece of mind

 

[BackLoafRiver]

Thanks for all the feedback. Maybe I should have started a separate thread.

This is one of my last 7 - 9:00 Tuesdays of the year. Basketball season is coming to a screeching halt soon and I can't wait. Just getting some odds and ends done before I have some small group instruction in 20 minutes.

 

[drjeff]

CPA for my household.

With regular wages, dividend wages, captial gains/loss issues, a household employee, and property taxes in a couple of states, I will wholey admit that I'm not as well versed in the tax code and it's year to year changes as I would feel that I need to be to make sure that I'm keeping as much of my hard earned $$ (and not giving any extra $$ to our elected officials to spend as they see fit). Plus, throughout the year my wife and I are having regular conversations with out CPA to make sure that we're up to date on our quarterlies so we don't end up with a big suprise at the end of the year (Frankly I'd much rather end the year as close nothing owed/no refund as possible, that way I know that I was able to manage as much of my $$ LEGALLY all year, rather than letting the gov't "borrow" some extra that I could have had throughout the year!)

 

[severine]

Yeah, I know, it's better to end even... but we haven't been so great about putting money away so the refund works better for us... Easier to not touch when it's a big chunk getting put in the bank instead of little dribs and drabs all year for us.

Pre-businesses/rental property, I did our taxes by hand every year. If you don't have a lot to figure out, it's easy enough to do. Once I'm done with my direct sales gig, I think I'll go back to doing taxes by hand.

Apparently, there's a spider I need to go kill...

 

[WJenness]

Ugh, I think I'm liable to owe quite a bit this year... haven't done the math yet though.

Got laid off in January, I don't think they took taxes out of my severence / vacation time they paid me for, I think I was claiming too many exemptions when I started the new job, and I've been doing some contract work for a part time job for the last few months. This could be ugly.

-w

 

[Warp Daddy]

Agree with doc I DON"T LIKE SURPRISES of the financial kind so that's why i scope stuff out early so i either owe them a small amt or they owe me a SMALL amt . I don;t like giving INTEREST FREE loans

Being retired i have to do quarterlies on my state taxes

 

[Warp Daddy]

OK,, gotta go pump iron n'sweat my arse off at the gym @10.

 

[billski]

Ugh, I think I'm liable to owe quite a bit this year... haven't done the math yet though.

Got laid off in January, I don't think they took taxes out of my severence / vacation time they paid me for, I think I was claiming too many exemptions when I started the new job, and I've been doing some contract work for a part time job for the last few months. This could be ugly.

-w

If its any comfort, Secretary of Treasury is in trouble too.

"Even the treasury secretary hasn't played by IRS rules. Geithner failed to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes between 2001 and 2004. Geithner contended the mistakes weren't intentional, but said that he should have known better."

 

[severine]

Home after a long day. Classes went great today. Found this amazing tree adjacent to the parking lot that has to be the thickest tree I have ever seen--wonder how old it is. Shared a moment with it between classes. Hung out with my parents and had dinner with them. Started talking about maybe joining them when they go down to FL in March for their 2 weeks at their time share. And now I'm home and exhausted.... with much homework to do.

 

[Geoff]

I took an online harassment course tonite. I had to complete it by the end of the week. That wasted 4 hours of my life.

I haven't even thought about taxes yet this year. I suspect that I will get a big pile back. I only worked for 4 months and I had some taken out of my unemployment check.

The kitchen in my new summer cottage just got gutted. The ceiling and sheet rock walls are down. I just got pricing for the kitchen cabinets I'd chosen. I may have to shop those a little harder.

 

[witch hobble]

Upping my post count.

 

[WakeboardMom]

I took an online harassment course tonite. I had to complete it by the end of the week. That wasted 4 hours of my life.

I haven't even thought about taxes yet this year. I suspect that I will get a big pile back. I only worked for 4 months and I had some taken out of my unemployment check.

The kitchen in my new summer cottage just got gutted. The ceiling and sheet rock walls are down. I just got pricing for the kitchen cabinets I'd chosen. I may have to shop those a little harder.

They give courses in "harassment?" Like they're teaching you how to harass? No kidding that was a waste of time...you really didn't need the lesson. ; - ) :flag:

 

[RootDKJ]

I took an online harassment course tonite. I had to complete it by the end of the week. That wasted 4 hours of my life.

I feel your pain. I have to do that every year.

 

[BackLoafRiver]

I feel your pain. I have to do that every year.

They skip the harassment course for us and instead do a three hour blood-borne pathogens training. (complete with a QUIZ at the end) If you don't pass the quiz or fail to turn it in, you have to sit through it again. Worst half a workshop day EVER.

Currently prepping for my next small group lesson. Trying to catch up on the forums as I haven't had a ton of time to read lately.

 

[Geoff]

I feel your pain. I have to do that every year.

It's kind of pointless for a telecommuter. My cats aren't legally protected from harassment.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Celebrating the fact that my docs took me off Heart Rate meds i'm now going commando yee haa !!! My heart rate has beenin the low 40's lately, by way of example Lance Armstrong's is in teh 30's . I am hoping to stabilize on my own now around 72 which it was pre heart attack .. but this am after 45 hrs off the meds the rate was 51 .

But i realize that it probably takes 7-10 days for the med to leach out of my system . Just gotta watch it and report any irregularities and if it goes above 90 ---

Heart rate is OFTEN affected when one has bypass surgery because the electrical system in the heart is cut and takes some toime to return to normal . Mine was always fine but shot up to 140 for 2 weeks after surgery but the meds did their magic , now i'm on my own -- we'll see

 

[RootDKJ]

Vcunning just gave me the heads up that snow is coming.