Over the last few years,TurboTax has gotten more kludgy but I still use it. This year I has to amend my return due to a late 1099 that I had forgotten I was due. I’ll admit I’ve been putting it off because it was going to be a complete hassle. 5 minutes and I’m done with both federal and state. And they let me e-file both for free. AND I could pay via ACH out of my bank account already on file. The added tax was minimal after my expenses and I have them cover but in the vein of “I can’t believe it happened to me …” that might be the most painless thing I’ve ever done tax-wise.
IIRC you asked us about this a couple months ago. And we told you it’d be easy. Yaay!
Did you heed the IRS’s instruction not to file an amended return if a) owed a refund and b) you haven’t received their refund payment yet? Sounds like you owed them, so not applicable.
My own approach to taxes is to try to owe them some small money. Or if I miss and they owe me money, aim to make it a small enough amount that I don’t really care whether I get it back in Feb or in Apr. Then complete my taxes ASAP as the source information rolls in, but do NOT file the return. Just sit on it. Then, along about now (a week before the deadline) e-file the return and arrange for them to ACH debit or credit the balance due or refund.
That way I avoid the need to do an amendment for a late arriving or corrected 1099, W2 back in the day, or whatever. The best amendment is the one you don’t need.
I’m lucky because my SiL has a law firm that does her taxes because the freaking thing is 60 pages when they’re done. I say I’M lucky because she has them do mine, too. Now, that’s love! LOL
I do like how turbotax makes it pretty simple.
This year, though, I somehow wound up logging in with a prior, unused, account rather than keeping the same account I used in previous years. I did all my taxes and got to the end, needed data from last year’s taxes and realized I had logged in incorrectly.
So… I found the correct account name, logged in and decided to speed through now that I had done it once already. Only… the price was $60 higher. Wait, what? I went back and forth and realized that my old account had me on Premier and the new account on Expert, or some such. I go back to the old account and select Expert… except there’s no place for me to do that. I literally could not find a way to change the product level. So, I got my data, logged back in to the “incorrect” username and filed taxes with a lower price.
And you were right despite my fears.
Yes from feds and state. Incidentally TurboTax also warned me.
21 double-sided for me. Another yay to e-filing it.
Is free filing for state something new, or does it vary by state?
Every time I’ve ever used Turbo Tax (which was for about 10 years up until last year) they always wanted me to pay $25 to file state. Then there was something like an additional $40 charge if I wanted them to take the filing fee out of my refund. So I would just go to my state’s website to file for free.
I paid to efile for my state but the amended return was free.
I tried to use TurboTax a couple of years ago. I have a couple of rental properties, and I thought that would be relatively straightforward, but TurboTax asked me a few questions that I had no idea how to answer, and their help wasn’t really helpful. It just presented more information that I still did not understand how to answer.
Everything outside of the rental properties was simple enough though, I will say that.
What’s hard about taxes is not any tax program’s fault. It’s Congress & the IRS’s fault. Now to be sure a badly designed program or UI can word things badly, ask questions in an illogical manner, etc. But the best case, least complicated they can be, is exactly as complicated as Congress/IRS makes them.
Good bet however you’ve been doing your taxes over the years, you’ve been doing the rental property part wrong. Which may or may not cause you a problem; you’re not obligated to take the more complicated deductions; you’re welcome to just forego them. And pay the extra taxes. Which can be a completely rational decision.
Rental real estate is one of the most complicated areas an otherwise ordinary middle class taxpayer might get into.
Or use a tax professional to get the full deductions but end up paying them more than you save.
My oldest was complaining that he pays too much in taxes.
Ummm … don’t you refuse to use TurboTax and pay a tax professional (note: the only things involved with his taxes is that he makes a ton of money and my DIL is a stay-at-home mom so no child care costs, one dependent and owns his home with a mortgage).
Yes.
Then why isn’t she helping with tax planning?
They do that?
