Tax Preparation?

[kork13]

I was just wondering how everyone goes about preparing your taxes each year. Do you:
a) Just take the forms and do them yourself
b) Do them online or with another sort of computer software
c) Use a tax preparer (personally hired, provided by your company, friend, etc)
d) ....something else?

I know that some here are accountants or otherwise trained in tax preparation, so obviously you're special cases who are fully knowledgeable and capable of doing them yourself (lucky you!).

As I'm collecting my 1099's and W2's, I'm starting to try to figure out how to go about doing my taxes. I have the opportunity to potentially get them prepared for me for free (service provided on my base), but with my current schedule (very erratic), I'm not sure that I'll be able to actually set and keep an appointment. I've used online/computer software before, but later discovered (with the help of a CPA friend after my family and I were audited) that it made some fairly significant errors, on the order of nearly $1000. Last option is to do it myself, which I'm perfectly fine with, but I'm just not sure if I can do them properly without making mistakes, whether by over-paying or under-paying.

So what do you do, and what might you recommend that I do?

[Broken Arrow]

TurboTax

[irmanator]

taxact.com

[Like2Plan]

I use turbotax, but my return is usually not very complicated.

The part I have the most trouble with is figuring out capital gains/losses for stock sales especially when I have been dollar cost averaging, receiving divididends and there have been spin offs. Usually the company provides a formula for calculating the gains (or losses ) when there has been a spin off and I use an excel spred sheet to apply a formula.

Other than that, it is pretty much fill in the blank with the appropriate number.

[swanson719]

Kork, I've had SJA do my taxes for the past three years. It's free and it takes the liability away from you if you screw something up. I don't know about your post, but they have walk in appointments the first hour of every day where I'm stationed. Personally it's just a CYA issue more than anything else.

[disneysteve]

c) I use a CPA. He happens to be my cousin and he and his brother now run the accounting firm that was started by my father and his father. I do pay him but at a significantly reduced rate to someone coming in off the street.

[creditcardfree]

Taxact.com

Our taxes are pretty simple. I have been doing my own taxes since I had my first job. Back then my dad helped me prepare them by hand. I also don't mind reading all the instructions if I think the online programs made a mistake, which they do. I had to switch programs one year because it was doing a calculation wrong and I knew it. I think that is the year I switched to taxact from either Turbo Tax or Tax Cut.

[ktmarvels]

You said "on base" so I'm going to assume you are military...I know you are a little unsure about using a program but we generally use Intuit Tax Freedom Project that allows us to file for free. There was one year we sold some stock so couldn't use it, but I like using this program.

[minnie1928]

I do them with TaxCut. I also do my parent's returns.

[jefffou]

I use a CPA friend who is more skilled in the area of tax than I am.....

It's nice to have another set of eyes on my stuff, and he's not awfully expensive.

Jeff

[feh]

I've always done them myself; for the last 10 years or so with the help of TaxCut, TurboTax and, last year, TaxAct.

Our return has always been pretty straight forward, until this year. I now own part of an LLC, and I've been told electronic filing will not be an option. Not sure how much more complicated things will be in general, but I'm gonna try TaxAct again...

Is anybody else here an owner of an LLC? Does it make taxes a disaster?

[reallyprettyhappy]

Kork, as a military member, you can use the HR Block prep software free through militaryonesource.com. We've used that the past 4 years. However, the buck always stops with you. Once everything is prepared, print it out and go over it line by line. If you don't understand something, either look it up at irs.gov or call the irs customer service line (they are, surprisingly, very nice and helpful, in my experience). Trust me, you'll feel so much better once you truly understand what is really going and how everything is calculated. No matter how mine are prepared, I always go over them by hand before I turn them in. As a matter of fact, the exercise has been very helpful in that, now I am able to estimate my returns pretty far in advance and can make adjustments accordingly. Good luck!

[kri$ten]

Turbo Tax

[reallyprettyhappy]

Kork, I've had SJA do my taxes for the past three years. It's free and it takes the liability away from you if you screw something up. I don't know about your post, but they have walk in appointments the first hour of every day where I'm stationed. Personally it's just a CYA issue more than anything else.

This is not exactly true. From what I know, those people are merely volunteers. They have to take an 8 hour class and then they are deemed 'able' to help military members prepare their taxes. We only went in once, and the result was so outrageously wrong I had to go back in and question them about it. It was then that I found out that they do not generally have any specialized knowledge, much less a CPA, and that they are just volunteers. Also, they do NOT sign the bottom of your return as a CPA does stating their name and giving a signiture that proves that they prepared it for you. You sign it yourself and at the end of the day, you are taking full responsibility for what you are filing, whether you understand it or not. Please be very careful if you do use the service provided by the base. You should always understand what you are filing. It is really not rocket science 99.9% of the time.

[fruitbowlk]

c) Use a tax preparer (personally hired, provided by your company, friend, etc)