Ah yes....that wonderful time of the year! We are past the January 1 mark, and on pace to start preparing taxes!!! If you are expecting a refund, you may have your taxes done by early February! If you are expecting to pay....April 15 might be the date you have in mind. Of course, organization is always a factor in these decisions.
Do you prepare your own taxes, or outsource it? Are you a pencil and paper person, or do you like some of the ready to use software?
For the past 10 years, I have used Turbo Tax. Our taxes are generally straight forward, so it was plug in numbers and go. I am debating this method this year. I always have remorse....did I get ALL I was entitled to? Maybe an expert could have found more ways to bump up the refund. Would the benefit of giving our taxes to an expert out weigh the money spent?
Not sure....still thinking this one over. I should add that we adjusted our taxes taken out of our paychecks a long time ago, so that our refunds are generally small. Why let the government us our money, interest free, all year when we would benefit from it as we go?
I know some people really like to get $5000 back at once and then use it as a huge debt paydown, or for a vacation or other purchase. Not us. We need it on a weekly basis.
What do you do?
I use TurboTax...
ReplyDeleteif we ever get audited, I hope they let me blog from jail. All I do is plug in the numbers...there are just SO many...I couldn't imagine getting all the receipts together taking them to someone!
LOVING the new site...
I'm THINKING about updating mine again...but, it's just in my head for now...
kathy
Turbo Tax is pretty darn good at finding everything you are entitled to. My husband uses a Tax Man at $330 annual fee. I have always used Turbo Tax and am trying to get him to use Turbo Tax for $29.99 (fee because he owns a house). I am trying to tell him that I can find all that we are owed and do the same darn job his Tax Man can. Please, let my husband listen to me! ;)
ReplyDeleteBTW - love it when I find new-blogs-to-me. We have about the same amount of debt to fight off.