I have two main sources of income from the past year, different kinds of contract work. One is nine to five, go in, report hours, get paycheck every couple of weeks. The other is “work from home, turn in work by deadline, get paid for what’s published a few months later”. The latter has been reported as self-employment income for years now. According to my usual accountant/tax preparer, I usually use a schedule C and E (for other stuff I don’t think I need to get into).
I’m thinking of doing my taxes on my own this year. To my dismay, TurboTax’s website (looking there because the accountant recommended this software) suggests its most expensive “home and business” software if I’m self-employed. Does anyone know if I really need that? Can I “make do” with the most basic paid version (since the free doesn’t have the two schedules I mention above)? How do I determine (perhaps based on last year’s taxes?) whether this is something I can do myself? I’d love to save the $200, but I feel hopelessly confused. Even if you can’t derive an answer from my vague description, a way to determine the answer myself would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Hmm. The latter category of contracting I mention in my OP uses 1099’s, which the TurboTax website says is a reason to use Home and Business (if I’m a “1099 contractor”). Why, especially when 1099’s are mentioned in the text of the Basic edition too? Do I really need to pay that much more for Home and Business?
See, this is why I’m so confused, and so tempted to just spend the $200 for the accountant: shit like this.
My wife is a writer, and gets 1099s, and we have used Turbo Tax Deluxe for over 10 years with no problems. Before that we used an accountant, and found it very expensive for what we got. You can look at your old returns and see what he did, and duplicate it.
We got Deluxe more for the State filing than for business.
Deluxe has a section for entering 1099s, and for entering expenses etc. We don’t do home office because we did that before and found that you have to pay taxes on the profit you make from a house sale corresponding to the percentage of house area you claim as an office. There is a section for it, though.
What exactly does Home and Office offer that Deluxe does not?
My spouse is a CPA and she has employment income from a full time job and we both have investment income. She uses TurboTax, the cheapest one from WalMart, for our personal taxes.
:dubious: Have you actually used Taxact? Because they make me pay every year and I don’t see why they would have singled me out.
With that said, I was going to recommend Taxact.
I’ve only ever used TurboTax for corporate filings and TaxAct for personal filings but I liked TaxAct better. Also, you can do what you need for less than $200. I paid $17.95 for my federal and 1 state filing and needed to include a schedule E and schedule C.
(Incidentally you get up to about $54 if you want TaxAct to prepare a business’s 1065 or 1120. I wonder if Intuit is trying to bump you up to that ‘level’ where you could do a business return if you needed.)
Yes. And it asks questions related to any business you are operating.
From what you describe, your tax return is not all that complex. A standard 1040, plus a schedule C for the business, and probably a schedule SE for self-employment tax. TaxAct will handle this easily.
Bumping for more opinions/aid. I have absolutely no experience in doing my taxes myself. Is this a factor in the software I choose? My preparer recommended TurboTax because she felt it would “help” me enough.
H&R Block home software is very good. It used to be called TaxCut. It is also very helpful and user friendly. I have used it for about 5 years, before that I used Turbo Tax.
I’ve been using TaxActonline for years now and haven’t had a problem. And no, “they” don’t “make” me pay. I really like the Q&A method; it helps me a lot, trying to determine what data to put where and there’s a running total of your tax bill/refund in the upper right hand corner so you can see what the effect of inputting one figure does to your bottom line. I’ve never had a problem and it sounds like your situation would be handled just fine with TaxAct. You can totally use the free version – I have never paid for TaxAct and have filed my taxes that way for maybe 5 years. I haven’t even tried any of the other web-based tax services because I’ve been so generally satisfied with it.
We started our taxes last weekend, and the 2011 version of TurboTax is much improved for 1099s. It used to be you had to add them in a special business section, now they get added during the screens for income, and it asks about whether they go into a business. It even knows about multiple businesses and asks which on the 1099 should go to.
Again, this is the Deluxe version, not the business version.
As a bump/update, I’ve decided (finally) to take the plunge, and just use the Deluxe - pray that what I lose out of not shelling out for Home and Business is less than the $44 I’m saving by using Deluxe. Home and Business just feels like overkill, from what I can tell (even if the website is trying to tell me that I “should” be using it).
Any last minute thoughts would still be great, though. Thanks!
We just got our refunds - in under two weeks after filing.
TurboTax bugs you to upgrade all the time - not just Home and Business but other things. If you really run into something you can’t handle with Deluxe you could always upgrade, and not lose much. BTW, you have access to all the forms also, and can fill them out directly if you choose to. In the past we had to do that for my wife’s SEP, but they got that working really well this year.
IIR your situation correctly, you should breeze through with the Deluxe edition. We usually print the main forms out before we file to make sure nothing looks suspicious - have plenty of ink and paper handy!
Welp, it’s been a total disaster so far - I apparently owe over $1500 in taxes, more than I think I’ve ever owed before, and I got a refund last year!
I didn’t think my income changed that significantly (I can’t find my accountant-prepared copy of last year’s taxes), so I have this horrible feeling that I’ve done something extremely wrong. But the only way I can confirm that (since I can’t find last year’s taxes) is to go back to the accountant and pony up the $200.
I also can’t find the business tax ID number on this trust I’m part of back home, despite having the state tax forms for 2008. Apparently, it’s NOT the same as the Federal Employer ID number.
Ugh. I almost wish I’d never started this to begin with…
BUT, a few years ago I saw a study in which identical tax info was given to H&R Block and random people on the street. Both groups made the same number of mistakes.
You mean the accountant charges $200.00 for a duplicate copy? Perhaps you can ask for an extension and get a copy directly from the IRS in order to check yourself?
I really hate not getting a refund. That’s always my special treat money.
I hope you find an error that changes these figures for you. Good Luck.
But I did find last year’s taxes, and I do have a change in income (more previously untaxed freelancing income), and I guess that could account for the $1700 swing. But I also see the accountant asked me for money I paid in medical (in this case, eye exam) checkups, and I never entered in any of that info. I have a LOT more in that category this year (expensive tests), but I don’t see anywhere in TurboTax that’s relevant.
