I feel like I'm in a bad infomercial, I'm sick to death with terrible allergies, going through all the 1099s, going through my bank statements month by month, because BoA doesn't know about search functionality. Honestly I don't think I've ever done my taxes correctly, every year I learn I did something wrong to hurt myself the previous year, but am too lazy to go back and fix it, even though it might get me money back. The idea of filling taxes using TurboTax, knowing my money goes into lobbying to make taxes more complicated kills me. What are my options? Should I hire someone? Is that any better? How complicated would it be to get unclaimed taxes for the past 3 years? I've spent 40k in unclaimed child care fees. Also every week someone from Intuit reaches out to me about opportunities. TC 200k yoe: 12
I’ve been hiring an accountant from H&R Block to do my taxes for me every year for the past 10 years. He’s been doing my taxes for me year after year and helps me with my tax strategy, and we’ve built a great relationship over the years. It’s only like $300 to hire an accountant to file your taxes for you, he does it correctly all the time, and he’s saved me thousands and thousands.
You're a software engineer and you can't figure out your taxes?
You say that like they are overlapping skills. Which they are not. What software engineer has the time to invest into learning all of the tax code?
Yeah, except you only have to be aware of a tiny subset of the tax code that applies to you, not "all of the tax code". And for the most part tax software walks you through all of those situations anyway unless your situation is really strange. Childcare expenses are not out of the ordinary by any means.
TurboTax does a good job, but in the end you are responsible for keeping the records that you need to have if under audit. Totally agree that out tax system is fubar. All this talk about paying your fair share is bunk. Anyone with basic Google search skills can see that it's all a joke. We printed trillions of dollars over the last 3 years. Why even bother collecting taxes? What the IRS collects is barely a blip on the radar. If congress really wanted to help the people and fix the tax system, the first thing they should do is apply those laws to themselves.
TurboTax only does a good job, because they are the ones responsible for half the bs lol
Also, taxation is theft
freetaxusa
I've been using that, but I'm realizing I didn't maximize my deductibles, for example hospital bills and child care costs, the TurboTax ui makes it easy to see what I'm missing, sort of
I WANT THIS: Hey government send me a bill— ok I’ll pay it. Kthx bye! Grover Norquist & other bozos oppose this bc it’s very useful for taxes to be painful, annoying, labor-intensive, etc Here’s a the back-door: if you think their number is wrong, you can do all the paperwork & record-keeping bullshit you want & submit that to the govt
How are they going to keep track of all your investments without being incredibly invasive? The only way is to get rid of capital gains tax, which I'm 100% in favor of.
Intuit lobbies hard to keep it complex. Other countries manage fine, but somehow the US is stuck with this crap.
I refuse to use Turbotax out of spite. I keep switching between TaxHawk, Glacier and a bunch of less well known tax prep sites. They might all be in bed at the end of the day but I refuse to use Turbotax out of spite.
please keep using turbotax else. Its our bread butter. I will also keep using PayPal eBay etc
TurboTax Live
Use a good CA to file taxes, less hassle, saves time, no mistakes and you get to avoid paying TurboTax.
Good CA will force you do the same amount of work if not more. Going over all statements and forms and then sending them to CPA. It only worth for complex tax scenarios- self-employed etc