What did you replace it with?
I have used it for 5 odd years, but it's really starting to annoy me now. I'm seriously considering trying to find a professional that can handle everything for, say $500/year.
I have used it for 5 odd years, but it's really starting to annoy me now. I'm seriously considering trying to find a professional that can handle everything for, say $500/year.
The first time around, it's a little bit of a pain to figure out what forms you need to attach and such, but it's really not that hard if you read the instructions for the forms and just follow the directions. If you're doing something complex like running a business and dealing with depreciable property or calculating AMT, it gets a little hairy, but even then I've generally been able to figure things out by just reading through the free publications that the IRS puts up on the web. I also like the sense of deeper understanding that I get from seeing how everything is being calculated, instead of just answering a bunch of questions and then having an algorithm spit out a number for my refund.
whois freefilefillableforms.com Domain Name: FREEFILEFILLABLEFORMS.COM Registry Domain ID: 1532523225_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2017-12-12T17:27:56Z Creation Date: 2008-12-11T19:53:30Z Registry Expiry Date: 2019-12-11T19:53:30Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: 480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Name Server: DNS1.QUICKEN.COM Name Server: DNS2.QUICKEN.COM Name Server: DNS3.INTUIT.COM Name Server: DNS4.INTUIT.COM DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
You are sending your data to Intuit.
Personally, I am a bit pissed that the IRS, a government organization with the sole purpose of collecting taxes, has no method for me to submit my tax return to them via the internet.
Maybe it's time to just switch back to downloading the PDF forms, filling them in on my local computer, printing them out, and just mailing them in. Ugh.
Taking the standard deduction (all your work, charitable donations, and other itemizable items still don't cross this threshold).
It's really annoying that taxes are even the way they are, it's all just a huge, convoluted mess. For something like 95%+ of the US the government already knows your earnings (W2/etc), banking (INT-whatever), and any brokerage/etc stuff. The only reason the IRS doesn't send a pre-filled out form that says "this is what we believe is owed to whom, - please pay / cash the check, or fill out taxes manually to report where you think we missed data" is PRECISELY because HR Block and Intuit (Turbo Tax) lobby for complicated taxes and no government automation.
Maybe you already know this, but the "prefilled form form the IRS" is similar to how a lot of countries do their taxes. From what I've heard the US uses tax writeoffs to influence people's behavior more than other countries do, so I wonder if that approach would lead to fewer people taking certain deductions.
It is a nice idea but in practice it would just overcomplicate things. Changing up the Internal Revenue Code is a better way forward.
I have:
* A job with a W-2
* 2x brokerage accounts with 1099-INT + 1099-DIVs
* An HSA with a 1099-SA / 5489-SA forms
* A housing coop with a 1098 mortgage interest form, and property taxes to deduct
* A mortgage with a 1098 mortgage interest form
Some pain points:
* TurboTax wants to know if I paid Alternative Minimum Tax in the past, but doesn't seem to check its own records (I have only ever used TurboTax), or give me an easy way to check that (i.e., go look at line / box #xx on your previous 1040s). My memory is that I did end up doing AMT one year, and I think that somehow influences future years?
* I ended up doing estimated tax payments one year (TurboTax gave me the forms and details for this), but then the next year I didn't understand that I needed to deduct those payments (or rather, I had imagined TurboTax would know / ask me about that, but it didn't in any clear fashion). I got a letter from the IRS about the discrepancy, I had to send them the estimated tax payment data, they sent me an adjusted form, it was all fine in the end but it took some extra time + hassle to work through.
* The brokerage accounts lead to capitals gains and losses which can need carrying over across years, and the dividend income seems to be enough to cause the estimated taxes in some years but not others.
* TurboTax is just way more annoying than it needs to be with its upselling, animations, sometimes vaugely worded questions, and apparent reluctance to use last year's records.
* Overall, my assets / income aren't massive or anything, but it wouldn't suprise me if someone being paid $500 / year or thereabouts could pay for themselves in saved time + mistakes or optimization suggestions.