Tax Preparation

[houstonmacbro]

For a few years I was using TurboTax, but then my tax preparation needs got tricky (and the software questions I wasn't understanding completely).

I have since been using a professional tax preparer.

Edited January 2, 2009 by houstonmacbro

[spiderman]

For a few years I was using TurboTax, but then my tax preparation needs got tricky (and the software questions I wasn't understanding completely).

I have since been using a professional tax preparer.

the old fashioned way - do it myself, with the help of an Excel spreadsheet, and mail it in.....

[Geoff8201]

Had to check other on this one. My taxes are really simple, a 1040A form, my W2, some student loan stuff, and that's it. I don't either bother with e-filing or tax programs. I just make sure to triple check all my numbers. I always get a nice little pot of the money back, but through the years the more I make, the more they take, as is the custom.

[memebag]

I've been using online software for a few years now. It's super sweet. It's very fast, nothing to install, I can do it whenever I think about it, and they calculate all the different ways I could file and pick the optimal solution.

[Porchman]

TurboTax - makes the prep less painless. I submit online. While I cough at the online filing fee, I

a. dislike the bother of sending something CMRRR (ok, so I'm lazy and I have aversion to dealing with postal employees)

b. really like getting thumbs up from the IRS within hours of filing.

[20thStDad]

I do them by hand for fun, then I use TaxACT's website because it just happens to be the one I got referred to a few years ago, and it's super easy especially since it has past return info saved.

[editor]

I did it myself until about 2000 when things started getting complicated so I switched to tax preparation software.

By 2002 I'd outgrown the software and went with H&R Block. Then Block got me audited to the tune of almost $800, and I found out that their "guarantee" is worthless because your claim can be denied for no reason and there is no appeal process.

Now I have the same woman who does my business taxes do my personal taxes as well. It's the best money I spend each year.

[TJones]

I trust my boy Noe Martinez who owns a Liberty Tax franchise in Katy. THe guy knows his stuff, and I always come out ok.

[millennica]

Until 2003, even though my taxes were complicated, I did the old fashioned way, with paper and pencil, because I was too frugal to pay to have them done. Beginning in 2004, I started using Turbo Tax which has made the process so much easier because not only don't I have to worry about calculations, but the previous years' taxes are automatically uploaded.

[editor]

Back before my wife and I were married and she had a very low income I did her taxes using the free online service the IRS provides. It went pretty well. I don't think that a lot of people realize that if you make below a certain amount ($30k? $25k?) that this service exists and is free.

[travelguy_73]

I'm a CPA, so I do them myself. It's sort of fun, but then again, I'm the guy who keeps my sales tax receipts on a spreadsheet so I don't have to use the sales tax deduction table .