Even though she only had a high school education, he trusted her to file with Turbo Tax instead of going to a professional tax preparer.

He was supposed to get a refund that year, but he never saw it. She took the money and spent it. To the tune of $4,000 which was excessive of what he was due.

She took the money and spent it on a week's vacation in SC without him.

The IRS caught up with them. Wife said she "left out a number" on the return and made a mistake. IRS was not interested. The agency wanted its $4,000 along with penalties and fines. Now $6,500.

My client trusted his wife, which was a mistake. They filed jointly, so he was just as responsible as she was. And all the money was gone.

I had to do some real negotiating with the IRS and got it down to $1,000.

Epilogue: Wife took the kids, moved out of his house, and moved in with an alcoholic. My client was in denial and still is. They aren't divorced and he lets her keep his refund.

I don't understand why people who are not accountants honestly think it makes sense to spend 26 hours filling out a return, when a pro can do it in an hour or less.

know where to put them. You can work on them the whole year so you know what to expect.

We pay estimated tax - Federal and State. TurboTax came with a large state refund. How come?

I did not follow the new legislation that exempted the whole, or part of Social Security benefits. So I had to read the always convoluted instructions to understand the numbers.

This year, starting next week, the State estimated tax will be a lot lower.

Would your accountant have alerted you to lower your payments as a result of the new legislation?

It helps to feel comfortable, even to like playing with numbers, though.

significant taxes.

Because my actual taxable income is so very low, I currently pay zero state and less than $500 federal.

I do have some taxes withheld from one of my income sources, and perhaps I could discuss with my financial advisor lowering those amounts. Although it was quite pleasant to get a total of just over one thousand dollars back. It's my financial guy that set up my investments to generate almost no taxes.

There's other details about filing and what's exempt, what's taxable, what the IRS actually gets in paperwork, that my accountant has explained to me. Among the things I like about my guy is that while he's about 15 or more years younger than I am, one of his sons is now an accountant and is also in his business.