Comments on: Your Take: How Do You Prepare Your Taxes?

By: Lucy

Lucy — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:44:03 +0000

I don’t remember my parents doing their taxes… but when I moved in with my boyfriend he used H&R Block and that seemed simple enough so I used their offices too. His return got simple once he got a stable salary job so this year he used Turbo Tax. I, however, sttill live in one state and work in another, I also have W2s and I’m an independent contractor so I intend to use H&R Block again especially since the business Turbo Tax cost about $100 which is the same as what H&R block charged me last year.

By: That Guy

That Guy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:24:31 +0000

I can read; therefore, can do my taxes. I don’t need to buy expensive software. By hand for life.

By: eric

eric — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:52:05 +0000

Hm I guess it’s different for me. My parents have an accountant but I’m comfortable enough to do it using tax prep software.

By: Frugal

Frugal — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:58:34 +0000

Used Taxcut or Turbotax – both are nice. Will stay with Turbotax as Taxcut missed one point and costed me $20.

Parents are in another country – not applicable

By: mikestreb

mikestreb — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:31:13 +0000

Does that bother you that one is normally higher? If all of the info is entered correctly, they should all show the same end result.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:51:02 +0000

I used the free edition of Turbo Tax for sometime but no longer qualify. Then I paid for Turbo Tax a couple of years but its been getting expensive.

Now I just do it myself. Its pretty easy to just sit down and fill out the 1040A form for my fiancée and I. We both claim a standard deduction, deduct some student loan interest, have small interest income. IRS even lets you e-file it for free online now so I still get quick turnaround time. This also saves a nice bit of money.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:34:28 +0000

My dad handed me a 1040EZ when I was in High School with my first job, and I used that thru college and the first 2 years I worked, but then I bought a house and it was Turbo Tax from then on. I never saw my father do his taxes or talk about them.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:46:02 +0000

Two accountants. Same ones as my parents (my finances are tied in with theirs through a couple llc’s and it just makes life easier).

I do most of my business tax stuff myself though.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:33:00 +0000

“The real criminals are the tax prep offices that charge regular folks $50 to file a 1040 EZ! They should be arrested.”

Amen to that. There are returns that can be cranked out in just a few minutes. That even includes billing and mailing!

Jeff

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:33:28 +0000

I have used TaxAct for some time now; before that I did them by hand myself. No real parental influence – they have always had them professionally done.

By: BrianC

BrianC — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:48:04 +0000

I started out doing them by hand, then tried H&R Block for a few years, and now I use TurboTax. My dad always does his by hand, and my mom gets an accountant to do hers. So I guess not much influence in this case, but yeah, if my parents were using a particular product and I had no clue what to do–I would follow what they were doing. I know I did that when I first got car insurance.

By: Jim Kibler

Jim Kibler — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:30:15 +0000

I do mine online every year with H & R Block because they have all of my information and it only takes me about 30 minutes.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:14:37 +0000

My parents always had their taxes done by a professional, so that’s the way I started out too. Then along came computers!

TaxACT software fills my needs quite well and I’ve always been very satisfied with that.

By: LDorado

LDorado — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:38:24 +0000

Many years ago I happily used TurboTax but dropped it forever when they become fond of installing spyware that paying customers wern’t told about and couldn’t remove. I switched to TaxCut, saved money, and never looked back. My mother-in-law is in her 80′s and also uses TaxCut.

By: javi

javi — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:00:10 +0000

My parents would go to H&R Block to to their taxes. For me, I filed the paper version of 1040EZ or I used Turbotax. I have been using Turbotax for years and haven’t looked back.