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What Tax Software Do You Use?
r_jensen11 asks: "I know this topic has been asked at least once before, but seeing as how 6 years have passed, I figured the question is due again. It's about that time of the year again when we find out how much we owe Uncle Sam (or as in my case, how much Uncle Sam owes me). Software has changed drastically in the past 6 years, since the previous query I found on Slashdot, as well as many tax rules. Does anyone here use tax software other than TurboTax and TaxCut? I know that there are also online forms I can fill out, but which ones are accessible to people that use OSes other than Windows and Mac OS X? I'd preferably use a program that I can use off-line and store my information locally instead of using eforms, but if I have to resort to eforms, which ones should I investigate and which ones should I stay far away from?"
It's still pen and paper for me, just like d&d.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Have an accountant do your taxes. They're cross platform, less error prone, and in many cases charge about the same price as popular tax prep software costs.
Print the forms, get a calculator, and do the math....whats the problem?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
As I recall it worked equally well with Firefox as IE last year. We've used it every year for the past 4 years or more. I'm not sure what a standalone program might do for us over the online offering. My returns are simple, but my wife has to deal with Schedule C, and investment stuff, it's served us well, as far as I can tell.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
taxact.com
already done and efiled - no charge if you go directly to their site. DO NOT visit the IRS site first or you will pick up a cookie which will make them try to charge you for efiling if your AGI is above $52k regardless of how you actually enter the taxact site later.
A good accountant will do your taxes for you.
A great accountant will have a tax loophole named after him/her.
If you are getting a large refund - look into talking to an accountant that can tell you how many deductions you REALLY need to be closer to break even. My goal is to hit somewhere between a 100 dollar refund to paying 500 dollars. I can afford 500 dollars, and I'd just assume be making the interest while the money sits in my bank account before giving it to the Man.
But PLEASE don't take my advise - talk to an accountant (IANAA) to find out what is correct for you
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Google Excel 1040. It works for me. I blew off Intuit after their activation debacle. That and the fact that Office Despot consistently has lower prices for Intuit's products than Intuit's website. After Intuit, H&R Block's product seemed ok.
Over two thirds of tax payers can file online for free. The IRS runs Free File, which helps you to select a service to file through.
Most of these were browser and OS agnostic last year & a good choice for those with AGIs low enough.
That there's a market for tax software in the USA.
Are there other countries where such software would be worth it?
In the country I live in the income tax system seems simple enough that anyone who is too stupid to figure it out is unlikely to be making enough money to fall in the taxable bracket.
Oh yea, I definately don't use turbotax software. But the online turbotax is really one of the best out there. Used it for the last few years. Lucky for me my wife got a job at a CPA firm last year, with a nice perk of free taxes... Hmm her boss gets to know EXACTLY how much she is underpaid.. :)
...is a qualified tax accountant, which you can access via an online virtual community called OutDoors, which features amazing high res graphics and panoramic 3d first person perspectives. When you locate the tax accountant, he or she will upload your financial data at a staggering speed with his or her eyes and ears, and using the revolutionary HumanBrain processor, calculate the maximum refund available to you.
It's quite a rush, get ready to ride the mongoose.
Unconstitutional? There's a Constitutional amendment, the sixteenth, that explicitly authorizes income taxes, ratified in 1913. To quote:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Now, as most of our rights are guaranteed by amendments to the Constitution (like the right to keep and bear arms), and as most of the time when laws are struck down it is because the violate the terms of the amendments and not of the original articles (particularly those pesky first ten amendments), I think you're going to have a hard time arguing against the validity of the sixteenth amendment.
By the way, by definition, amendments have priority over the text of the articles - after all, they are *amendments*. Any discrepancy between an amendment and the articles must be resolved in favor of the amendment.
It's still pen and paper for me
Sure, but it's easier to get the forms with a browser and KPDF than it is to drive to the library. Also, it's easier to add the stuff up with gnumeric than it is to use a calculator. After that, the check's in the mail.
Of course, all of it's a stupid curse. Uncle Sam knows exactly what you made and has the resources to present it to you over the web. Taxes should be as easy as going to a web site and choosing between "I agree" and "I have something else to report" then doing it.
I'm going to continue to use paper as long as Uncle Sam does, mostly because the programs made to do taxes have proved themselves less than trustworthy.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
That Uncle Sam returning that nice interest free loan you have given them by over witholding is "Giving you money back". Biggest fallacy in the book ...
The biggest fallacy in the book is that fiat currency has an intrinsic value. Look up Alan Greenspan's little essay on the gold standard, and realize that you are not free without a secure store of value. The withholdings are a time consuming but insignificant part of the bigger scam.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
This is part of a negotiated settlement between the IRS and for-profit tax preparation companies during the Clinton years. It, after all, makes more sense for the IRS to offer free software for the public to encourage everyone to file electronically and standardize everything, etc. More efficent for the IRS, and therefore you. But that would hurt some big companies (I'm sure you can intuit whom I mean). Thus a deal was struck a while back, which as far as I know is not promoted/advertised by the tax-prep software companies.
The result is that people who make less than a certain amount (Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $52,000 or less) are entitled to free software by the "Free File Alliance, LLC" (ie, the tax software industry). During the Bush administration, the # of people who has qualified for this has gone down every year...
The government believes that private industry, given its established expertise and experience in the field of electronic tax preparation, has a proven track record in providing the best technology and services available. In addition, the government believes a partnership with private industry will: provide taxpayers with higher quality services by using the existing expertise of the private sector; maximize consumer choice; promote competition within the marketplace; and meet objectives in the least costly manner to taxpayers.
FYI.
Yes. It used to be not compatible.
Now there is a standard tax file format that a lot of software is implementing.
Quicken and other packages also import this. TurboTax will ask you if you want to import from Quicken. Just say "yes" and then choose .TXF format when it asks you. Smooth sailing from there.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mohandas Gandhi
Title says it all. I have an account, log in once or twice a year, and file my taxes. I can do it wherever I am, on whatever computer is available, as long as it has internet access and a secure web browser. Back when I used software, I found I was always waiting for the software patches to come out, and they always came out AFTER most of the features of the software would have been usable (right near the end of filing time, instead of in January during planning time). Now, it's always up to date, and I can check in whenever I want to see where my registered savings and charitable contributions should be to maximize my return. Plus, such sites are generally free for people below a certain income level (and cheaper than tax software for people over that level).
Yes, because of course it is an entirely rational argument to claim that differences in punctuation invalidate a ratification (they don't), or that Ohio didn't become a state until 1953.