Tax season is here again. I actually did mine a few weeks ago. I filed the federal form online through Turbotax Online
I couldn’t e-file my state form because I was only a part-year resedent
of Massachusettes, and you can’t do that online. I already got my
federal refund back, and am waiting for the state. Who knows how long
that’ll take, MA is really slow with their taxes. I was hoping that by
doing it early I would get it back sooner, but who knows. I did ask for
direct deposit, so at least I don’t have to wait for a check. It is
somewhat satisfying to get a check in the mail from the government, but
I’d rather be surprised that my bank balance is higher than i expected.
I wouldn’t mind paying taxes if they didn’t make it so complicated.
I don’t see how the average person can do it without using an
accountant. The government must make a fortune off of people that don’t
take advantage of all the deductions and other ways of reducing your
taxes. It’s definately worth having someone that knows what they are
doing do your taxes for you. If you own a house, or make more than,
say, $30k/year, you shouldn’t do your own taxes. And really, people
that make less than $12k or so shouldn’t do their own either, because
they may be eligable for the Earned Income Credit, and that’s really
hard to figure out correctly for most people. At the very least, you
should use tax software such as TurboTax, or TaxCut, to do your taxes.
That’s much less expensive than a CPA, and can help save alot of money
in the long run. It knows what to ask and how to figure it all out for
you.
I’ve done all 3 (CPA, myself, and TurboTax) and I prefer TurboTax so
far. I’ll start using a CPA once I meet the requirements I said
earlier. I know that I don’t know enough to do a complex return as well
as it could be done. I could certainly do a good job, but I’m not
trained to get the most out of the tax code. I may not like the way it
is setup, or the complexity, but I’ll take advantage of it when I can.