The taxman cometh

I have Turbo Tax at the ready. In past years, my husband would never use it. Claimed that our return is too complicated. (It isn't) I think that I have gotten him to the point where he will attempt to use it (with me filling everything in).

Yep, TaxCut here too. Sam always takes a big bite out of our asses, but I play the fine line game of trying to withhold 90% of our tax burden in order to avoid penalties and then expect to pay a full 10% in April.

Phoenix, you'll love using a software package. Both TurboTax and TaxCut are good programs. I switched over to TaxCut when Intuit made a marketing blunder a few years ago. They've removed the goofy registration requirements that caused so much grief, so either program is a good tool.

Our taxes are pretty straightforward, we do 'em "by hand" or whatever it would be called if we don't use a program. I think we're both paranoid enough that we'd have to double-check if we used a computer program, anyway. We did a draft already -- our final version is rarely different from the draft -- but have to FINISH. Trying to do so this weekend, too. (It's so stupid, we did the draft as soon as we had all the documents -- early February, I think -- and there's no reason we had to wait this long to finish. Hmph.)

There's a reason alright. CAUSE WE HATE DOING THEM!!

There is that!

The last year I did my taxes by hand I spent days filling out worksheets to calculate what percentage of this and that I was eligible to take as a deduction, whether or not we had to pay AMT, as well as filling in various account numbers and addresses for dividends and investment returns.

The first time I did it with a program it took most of a weekend to get the software installed and updated, all the personal information and account numbers organized and loaded, and complete 6 tax returns (I file separate returns - state and federal for each of the girls).

In subsequent years I didn't need to enter any personal info or account info (unless there was a new account). My tax returns now take a few hours - once I've got the program installed and my paperwork collected.

I wouldn't go back to doing it by hand for love nor money.

CPA

I did my taxes online in February, got my refund, spent it, practically forgot about it all now.

Tax Cut is less than 30 bucks. A CPA is how much?

Now, if that CPA came to my house and gathered my paperwork along with actually doing the taxes then, that might be worth the price.

(Actually, I come from a family of accountants and have always done my own taxes but I can truly appreciate not wanting to be bothered and tossing it over to someone else.)

Yeah, my father was an independent small business accountant and did taxes for all sorts of mom&pop operations as well as individual returns. He would flip out when someone showed up with a year's worth of documents and receipts all thrown into a shoe box for him to sort through and organize before completing the returns.

So was mine! By now, April 7, his office would look like a hospital emergency room on a Saturday night.

Heh! And they shared a love for the bottle too - maybe there's a correlation

I've just loaded last year's returns - last updated 4/13/06. That's much closer to my typical approach.

Oh yeah!

This time of year we'd always breathe a sigh of relief because from January until April 15, he wouldn't drink. Not even a drop. But April 16...

I did my taxes in january. The refunds are long gone.

Doesn't that feel like you came to the party early and left too soon?

I usually end up crying in my beer - not exactly my idea of a party.

eoe, not really. I'm used to it.