I cannot recommend them to others because their business practices have gotten exceedingly annoying.

I pay for the software but they still keep trying to upsell every 5 minutes. And you can’t get a decent view of where you are in the process or check different sections the way you used to be able to do.

I used to appreciate them, now I despise them.

It said "download", did not have a disk. So i downloaded and wanted to start turbotax. I found out it did not download to my PC. I could only do my taxes online. No way was I going to have my financial info online, so I got a refund and ordered a disk so I could download the software to my computer. I am happy now.

BTW I never file electronically for the same reasons, I always file paper returns. I do not trust sending my personal info online.

Paranoia.

Some people need to file paper tax returns because they have an unusual form or a prior identity theft, but most can e-file.

Filers who submit paper returns risk an array of problems, such as key-punch errors on name or taxpayer ID numbers, or even a form getting dropped on the floor. When pandemic tasks like stimulus payments diverted IRS resources from return processing, a large chunk of the backlog was paper returns.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/11214557

I have been using them since 2000 and, of course, they have changed.

Still, except for two years ago I know my way around and our returns are pretty simple: Social Security and RMD and on occasion selling stocks. A busy itemized deductions, though, so.... I am staying for now.

Good luck

Yeah, he charges me, but as far as I'm concerned it's well worth it. He knows the ins and outs of the tax code, and all kinds of things.

It's also only an hour or so of my time, compared to how many hours to people doing their own taxes spend?

took longer than using TurboTax. For 35 years I had used a tax accountant. Plus he missed some things that he would have never have known about if I had not told him first, like an obscure provision that I found about reading one of Ed Slott's books on IRAs. It was also news to a tax accountant that my sister used. Also by knowing the tax law, at least the parts that affect my situation, I can plan better, like the size of my Roth IRA conversion.

I try to keep things simple.

For many years I had investments with Merrill-Lynch, and the information they provided each year was hideously complicated. Hours and hours of inputting the info they provided. I know because when I acquired my current accountant, what he did, which I really appreciated, was to have me with him in the office while he inputted everything into the tax form. It honestly took hours, and he knew exactly what he was doing. Which I wouldn't have.

He charges me around $200.00, which includes a senior discount (hooray for being old!) and in my opinion is well worth it.

When people speak of spending ten or more hours doing their taxes, I want to ask, "How much is your time worth?" This man spends less than an hour these days, and while $200/hour might seem like a lot, to me it's well worth the peace of mind and the assurance I have of it being right.

I don't have the assurance it's done right unless I check every freaking number, and most years I found one or two things wrong. And as I mentioned, getting a couple obscure tax breaks. Well one was minor (just an $8,000 deduction spread over decades), but the other is a deduction averaging more than $1,000/year since 2005 and continuing -- this year it's $1822. Both these deductions are ones one gets whether itemizing or not (they aren't Schedule A deductions).

Edited to clarify I don't actually "check every freaking number" as I said in the first sentence above, but rather I check every input number, making sure each one got in correctly and ended up on the right form. But no, I don't check all of the calculated numbers, as there are tons of tons of intermediate calculated numbers. I do have a spreadsheet though that separately calculates the key numbers as a check and a planning tool.

Some of us enjoy tax policy and so we learn about taxes along the way. Some of us enjoy being in control of the process instead of faith-trusting someone else (and then finding out that they make mistakes like all humans).

I do not do this to save a $100 or so, that's just a very minor bonus. I do it to save myself time. I wouldn't do it this way if it wasn't saving me time.

Maybe I'm naive, but I'm certain he does things right.

It seems like you have vastly more complicated taxes than I do. I'm one who has benefited enormously from the recent increase in the standard deduction. Lucky me. And my income is relatively low, again, lucky me.

So how much time do you save? And what, exactly, is that time worth? I recall several decades ago when the husband of a good friend spent at least 20 hours doing their taxes, and all I could think was, "What are you paid per hour? Could it possibly be cheaper to pay someone else to do your taxes?"

I realize for you, doing your own taxes could easily be an hour or two, and so more than worthwhile. I might actually be able to do my own taxes, but for me, paying my accountant is well worth the peace of mind. And if you have peace of mind, that's fantastic.

Did you really? Yeah, it was great, but at the same time they got rid of the personal and dependent exemptions which would have been $4,150 in 2018 had the TCJA (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, aka "Trump tax cuts&quot not gone into effect. The standard deduction would have been $6,500 for single filers in 2018 had not the TCJA taken effect -- instead it expanded to $12,000 thanks to TCJA, for a net increase of $5,500. So yeah, for someone who takes the standard deduction before and after the tax law change, it looks like an increase of $5,500 - $4,150 = $1,350 in what one subtracts from AGI to get taxable income. Well, that's not bad.

All numbers above are for singles. For married filing jointly, all would be double that. Not an enormous windfall, but certainly noticable.

Oh, and the marginal tax rates dropped from 15% to 12% for the 2nd bracket, and 25% to 22% for the 3rd bracket. (The first bracket remained at 10%).

For me, who itemizes deductions both before and after the tax law change, it was a negative -- because I lost the personal exemption, while the increase in the standard deduction did me no good because my itemized deductions exceed my standard deduction even after the standard deduction expansion. So basically, speaking of 2018, my taxable income increased by $4,150 just from the lost personal exemption.

Each year thereafter, the personal exemption would have increased by the rate of inflation (had it not been "Trumped" out of existence), as does the standard deduction. I'm just using 2018 since it is the first year that the TCJA went into effect.

in recent years. So for me, the increased standard deduction has been a godsend. The past two or three years I've paid zero federal income tax. Keep in mind, that my actual income is below the median, even in my state, NM, which is a very low-earning state. And because most of my income is tax exempt -- I have a tiny pension, 2 annuities, Social Security, and money I take from investments -- while my total income is, as I've said below the median, it's enough for me, a single person who is happy to live quite frugally.

Being relatively poor has its advantages.

Being somewhat poor has its advantages.

I will add that for the very most part I have enough money for most of what I want. If I had more I'd probably do more travelling, or stay at nicer hotels. Meanwhile, I do travel a decent amount, mostly to science fiction cons four or five times a year.

Oh, and the fact that I live alone, my one son is now 40, grown, completely on his own, also helps. I don't happen to have grandchildren, and probably never will, which is fine, but also keeps my spending way down.

I used an accountant. He was great and wold chuckle, when I brought him the 1040 already filled, "wondering" whether he should submit it as is, but I would find small mistakes, like the school district identifier.

Either way, we moved a lot, changed jobs a lot, so did not have any accountant who knew the in and out of our finance.

For $80 you can buy H&R Block software and efile 5 returns. (If you wanna help out other family members or friends)

Just sayin', TurboTax sucks