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IRS Tax e-Filing Experiences?
jdrogers asks: "Last year I e-filed for the first time and it was by far the worst tax experience of my life. It was expensive. It was often hard to interpret the meaning of the 'easy questions' designed to determine my tax status and I found that the questions often led me to answer incorrectly. Two of my three state and federal returns were sent back to me due to errors. This year, there are many options for cheap or free e-filing. How have other Slashdot readers fared and which websites offer the best filing experience? What did you love or hate about it? And most importantly, which one should I use this year?"
First?
They're just going to take your money! Say no to taxes!
The "Free" efile services are only for people who do standard deductions.
Chrissakes people, take as many deductions as possible: School, house, work, consulting gear, etc. I'm unemployeed, my wife is a nurse, we own a house. This year, we took over $30,000 in deductions, vs. the standard deduction of $8000 per person, which means that we saved over $14,000.
Pay a tax accountant to do your taxes for you. Get as much money back as possible.
We've used a tax consultant for the last two years. Both times she has pointed out deductions that my wife and I missed, and both times we increased our rebate by much more then $250 ($2000 last year, 1000 this year).
Well worth it.
Plus, I don't want to spend 4 fucking hours doing my taxes.
I filled out my taxes at HRBlock.com in under an hour, paid them 20 bucks for it, and got my returns within a week. Let them do the math :)
Pokey The Penguin!
It sounds very much like you have a very strange set of circumstances (two state returns?), and/or you were using some cheap or badly designed software (and for that matter, it could have been TurboTax, I haven't plumbed the more bizarre alternatives; as I said, when I did stuff that was significantly complex, I went to H&R Block--and their e-file was as easy, just way more expensive).
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
I e-filed this year (or attempted to *) and I have only good things to report. Mind you, I used TaxCut, not TurboTax (boot-sector evilness avoided!) * My father-in-law accidentally claimed my wife as a dependent, so that kinda put a kink in the e-filing.
You apparently have no clue what you're doing.
I've e-filed for the past 2 years (H&R Block one year, home software the next). No problem either time. I got my refunds quickly, and I never had any trouble.
jason
I've e-filed for (I believe) the last 3-4 years and I've never had a problem. Got my refunds back quickly (especially with direct deposit.) If you have a simple return (no exemptions, dependents, etc. as in my case) e-filing is great. Otherwise, you might might want to get some help to make certain thigs are done correctly.
Co-founder and designer at Music Nearby: http://musicnearby.com
I've e-filed for the past three years and have never had a problem with it at all. My refunds were fast, and I found the system easy to use. I completed both federal and state in about 30 minutes each year.
WARNING: I work for Global Tax Network, so I'm very bias when it comes to filing taxes electronicaly!!
:) Global Tax Network specializes in Foreign Nationals and Expatriates, so I'm sure if you're curious, you can find a GTN office in your part of the country that can help you out with your situation. Other companies offer competing online organizers, but we've really tried to set ours apart from the rest with the amount of information we collect and how flexible we designed it. The IRS's method for collecting your tax info online is VERY picky, and people generally like an online tax organizer instead. For one thing, you are guaranteed to have an account review your information, and advise you if you have questions or have a problem with the information you submitted.
Well, I have some experience with this issue... There are online web applications that collect your tax information floating around the 'net called Tax Organizers. They basically consist of many questions to determine your status, and they also collect your wages, etc so your taxes can be prepared for you. That said, I'm currently responsible for designing/maintaining/coding the online tax organizer at www.globaltaxnetwork.com. Feedback is always appreciated, and we get a lot of it. I've tried to do things like make it work in all browsers, but I find the older netscape browsers are still getting used, so that makes it very hard. I generally test with Mozilla and IE 5.0+ so I'm not getting everything, but I have to think about my target audience here - which is mostly people over seas or using default windows setups for internet access. We get a lot of feedback about our questions. We've probably reworded about half the questions 2x each to make it easy to understand for everyone. About inputing your tax info online... we tried to make it a pretty easy process, you are asked the basic questions in the interview and then based on your answers there, you get asked more detailed questions in the "modules" section. Once you're done, our tax accounts are alerted and can download your information for review and return completion all for very reasonable prices
I used TaxAct for the 3rd year in a row and had no problems. Federal filing was free and the State was $7.95. Feds deposited my refund 11 days later, state always takes between 2 & 3 weeks (should be deposited Friday). TaxAct pointed out things I would have missed otherwise and saved me about $800.
Helpful hints:
1. Get a federal booklet. It will answer many of your questions.
2. www.irs.gov. It's there, use it. Their FAQ page at http://www.irs.gov/faqs/index.html has lots of good info.
3. Check for a local office in your area. You can meet an IRS rep face-to-face and ask questions.
The IRS may be blood-sucking bastards, but they're HELPFUL, blood-sucking bastards.
Just kidding. I've always found the IRS folks to be courteous and helpful. One year they even found an error in my favor by $85! But then again, I've never tried to avoid paying my taxes, either.
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I have been efiling for as long as it has been around.
The last 4 years have been easy. Turbo tax makes sure all is OK and 10 days later, pop, money in the bank.
This year the IRS finally has their act together for getting your status online accurately.
Turbo tax has rebates for all the filing fees.
Of course, I live in a state that only sort of supports e-filing (I still have to fill out a form, sign a voucher, etc. and mail it), but that's a whole other issue.
I used TaxACT on-line this year. That's before I noticed that my spam folder is brimming with spams promoting it, but I'm hoping those aren't connected to TaxACT themselves. Anyway, it didn't cost much (about $8 each for federal and state), and I got both of my refunds (totalling over $13,000!!!) in a matter of a couple of weeks.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I have been using web based services for 4 years now. granted I have no money, so it only takes an hour, but it does work. Yes I have the proof of it.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
It's worked perfectly so far.
Of course with the government monitoring everything these days this post probably screwed me over.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Most comments I've seen so far relate to those making relatively large amounts of money, at least enough so that they can measure their taxes in 5 figures. So if most of Slashdot has enough income that a 1040EZ is out of the question, I may as well be disregarded.
However, as noted by other people, it's free to file a 1040EZ online. There are multiple sites that offer the service and all of the one's I've seen utilize SSL. Once more, as already noted, the return is processed faster than a paper return and you can elect to have your return direct deposited. [And if you're, say, a college student living off of financial aid and college jobs, you're pretty certainly getting most of your taxes back.]
I've filed electronically using my1040ez.com two years running now, have not had any difficulty and have had the money in my bank account relatively quickly.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
I've been using turbotax.com for four years. Would I still be doing that if it weren't super easy? And thanks to some changes, I got my MD return direct deposit this year.
Who cares if they are evil? I thought we were supposed to choose the best tool for the job. In my case, it's turbotax by a landslide.
If you really have an odd situation, why not go to HR Block or Jackson Hewitt. Let them figure out your taxes and do the efiling for you.
Also, is it possible you are the luser who screwed up? Or the states you are in? The blame doesn't have to fall to the software.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Turbotax, Taxcut, whatever, but print out the long 1040 form and mail it in. E-file just reduces the IRS's costs, and having an efficient income tax system is no way to argue against it.
I think I figured out once that it costs the economy something like $80Billion to administer the income tax system. Posting as a coward since I have nothing to back up that claim except a vague recollection.
I used their web interface the first year, but then switched to their installed version in later years.
I used Turbotax this year (first time user), and I filed electronically, I have to say it was the most straight forward experience I have had doing my taxes ever. Of course I do know things like filing status, and standard deduction versus itemized deduction, etc ... and honestly, I think that it is important that you know about some of these things if you do your own taxes, and you need anything more than a 1040EZ to do them.
Yeah yeah ... I know, Turbotax writes into you boot sector, etc ... but thats another discussion altogether.
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be
Before 2000, I did paper, it was okay, I got my refund in 1 1/2 weeks.
Last year I filed by telephone, got my refund in a week.
This year I used quicktax, they say I will get my refund in a week.
I file well before the deadline (so I get my money sooner).
The problem with tax software is the deductions aren't quite as straighforward, it is hard to make sure you get everything. (ie Spousal tution tax credit transfer).
I think it is best to do them on paper, transcribe it into software, file by phone whatever, it doesn't really matter.
I'm saving them money on data entry... why can't I e-file directly with them? Why must I go through middlemen who charge fees?
It's as if the IRS wouldn't accept paper tax forms directly from me, but required me to take them to a scribe who, for a fee, would copy them onto a new tax form and mail them to the IRS...
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They have a nice easy tax form online. It's free to do state taxes (in California) and a small fee ($10?) to do federal. I did the Federal 2 years ago and it was pretty painless, even compared to the EZ form. This year alas, I've a much messier tax picture, and will be visiting someone soon to have them do it for me... real soon now....
I was impressed with the service and will contine to use it.
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.
The pop-ups don't bother me too much, as they are providing a free service. What does bother me is that the IRS could have provided a better service: they already have my W2s and other income information so I wouldn't have to type it in. Also, I'm not thrilled that a single company has my:
SSN
income info
mailing address
phone number
email address
bank account number (for direct deposit)
credit card number (to pay for the state return)
That's a lot of info to trust to a company running IIS (taxactonline.com).
I've used Turbo Tax for the Web 2 of the last 3 years (with one horribly unsatisfactory visit to H&R Block - I never want to talk to them again), and it has been flawless. Many investment firms for stocks/mutual funds and credit unions have discounts for it (I got 50% off of the Federal price through Vanguard), and I have been very pleased. Despite the activation crud the downloadable version has, I haven't had any complaint with the Web version, and I've gotten my refunds very quickly (no extra charge for e-filing, either).
The direct download/fill-in from various institutions is rather handy, also (mutual fund sales, dividends, etc.).
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
The tax preparers are really good and they know lots of tricks for getting the best deal (all still on the up and up). They handle all the hassles. And $120 is cheap given the amount of time saved, the guarantee that its right, etc.
Last time I did it sucked. Think from now on I'll
just skip paying irs. Think it'll save time for everybody.
I have filed electronically the last two years. It was an excellant experience. I prefer the home software method, because I have access to all my previous years' tax info, which allows the software to be even more predictive. I also like the fact that the software I used(TurboTax Deluxe) allowed me to enter estimated income, deductions, etc. for the upcoming year, and told me what to fill out on my W-4s to prevent either having a huge return or large payment to make on April 15. Also, TurboTax Deluxe includes free (after rebate) version of the state software, and free e-filing(after rebate). If you have deductions, like mortgage insurance, or charitable deductions, you can even deduct the price of the software itself under the category of tax assistence.
A friend of mine used it and found almost $1000 in refund because of being able to deduct losses on her mutual fund, and for EIC, which she didn't think she qualified for.
To summarize: dont use credit cards to pay taxes as you bill be charged as a shop owner dont use software as you pay for it use an accountant if your situation IS complicate enough. personally I use my calculator, pen and paper. I usually end up around 4AM but avoid the round trips to paid preparers who always have more questions. cheers. mic