Mr VOW and I have always had someone do our taxes. We were introduced to a tax expert when we bought income property, and we simply turned everything over to him. Even after we sold that property, we stayed with him. Over forty years of his services, he became a friend and figured everything would continue forever.
Until January. I noticed we never received his “tax time is coming” email, with the attached list of information and forms we needed to collect.
We were always late. Because we were a continual thorn in his side, we even sent him a gift box from Omaha steaks for putting up with us.
I guess I knew something wasn’t right. When I ran into a block wall trying to research him, I discovered in the State of Arizona, death records are not considered public information. I asked my son-in-law to help me look, and he uncovered reason why we had not heard anything.
Our tax guy died last June. He was just a couple of months older than Mr VOW. I did find an email contact for Mrs Tax Guy, and I expressed our deepest condolences.
She said he passed suddenly. They had just returned home from an Alaskan vacation when he died.
He and his wife typically went on a big vacation after tax season was over.
Selfishly, I think: now what do we do? Should I use a freebie tax service online? Buy my own software? Go to H&R Block or one of those ilk?
Just another dark cloud parked on my head. No wonder I have neck troubles!
If you are retired and your taxes are simple enough you can use the IRS’s free website.
If you haven’t done your own taxes in decades, now might be a real dumb time to try to learn. Plenty of places akin to H&R Block can make the problem go away for you. Yes, it’ll probably cost a bit more than would e.g. TurboTax or TaxFree software. But how much are you used to paying for handholding every year.
I’ve used TT to DIY my taxes for 30 years. But if I’d never used it, I probably wouldn’t start now. Instead I’d be paying somebody to make the problem go away. Retirement is good for that.
The older one is, the closer they are to the place where one or both die, or become not necessarily senile, but less than fully capable. Ideally you’d have a service set up before you got there. Now might be the time to do that. I’m a mere stripling of 65, but I’m certainly considering that option for next year.
Ouch, you’re a little late in the season for this. Yeah, H&R Block or similar is about the only choice right now. We’re in a similar situation, had them done by a trusted CPA for years, then she retired without offering any recommendation. Tried half-heartedly to find someone else, but ended up doing it all myself this year. NEVER AGAIN. I figured, how bad could it be. The answer: pretty bad.
The most complicated thing about our taxes right now is investment accounts that have foreign holdings; that triggered a few extra forms to note ridiculously tiny amounts. If there were anything really complicated, like income from real estate, I’d have crashed and burned, guaranteed. Go to H&R Block.
I am in the middle of tax hell right now myself. All I can do is work a little bit until my anxiety reaches it’s peak. Then do something else for awhile to calm down before I go back to them.
Out taxes have been extremely simple for the past 10 years or so, and I’ve always done them myself. In 2023, though, things got a wee bit more complicated. I waffled a bit, but then decided to still go it alone.
Well, a small complication arose (got a form that I wasn’t expecting) that required filing an amended return. I started in on that, spent about an hour on it, then decided that it was much more complex than I’d imagined and that I was just guessing at that point.
So, I went to H&R Block for help with the amended return. It cost me $99. But the preparer found some things that I’d missed on the original return.
Long story short, we’re getting back an additional $1,100.
If it’s at all complicated, or if you’re just not sure, the peace of mind alone is worth the price to pay a pro.
Trying to do taxes on paper is a fool’s errand in 2024; everything you don’t know will hurt you. And it’ll be horribly laborious.
Doing them yourself with a tax program is not all that challenging. Easier the second and subsequent year than the first, but still not bad. Just accept the fact you get to answer a bunch of inane seemingly pointless questions from the program and keep answering them until you’re done.
Hiring a pro, even a mill like H&R block, is the big Easy Button. And, ref MMM just above, may well pay for itself several times over.
When I was a teenager working my first job, my dad made me fill out my tax forms by hand. He wanted me to completely understand what went in each relevant line, and how the math worked. Fortunately those returns were very simple.
I’m speaking as unpaid tax-preparer volunteer, and also somebody who has used TurboTax since about 2005.
Generally I would say this: If your taxes are simple, use the Free File option. If they’re a little more complex, purchase and use TurboTax.
But without knowing what income streams you have, it’s hard to offer a suggestion that would be the best for you. As others have said, the best thing would be to go to H&R Block, or better yet, a local firm that does tax preparation. If you are used to paying somebody to do your taxes, it shouldn’t cost much more to switch to another provider of this service.
I’ve used Tax Act for decades. It’s very simple and when you are a repeat user everything just transfers from the prior year and you can edit it. It’s very cheap, like $20 bucks - but - if you have anything not covered on the basic 1040 you have to upgrade to the deluxe version. But that’s only like $50.
As a repeat user you can skip the questions and just do an edit the forms you have approach. This year my wife had some gambling income. We don’t itemize deductions but still that requires another form. So $50.
Did them months ago. TurboTax. I don’t remember what it cost, my taxes are very uncomplicated and I’m sure there was another way I could do it online cheaper, but whatever. It worked. Didn’t get as large a refund as usual because I cashed in a stack of old savings bonds last year, but I still didn’t owe anything. Just wanted to get it done and not worry about it.
Just in case you feel like you do need a professional to do them for you, please keep in mind that you can file for a six-month extension while you look for someone. I don’t know what your situation is, but if you’ve had taxes withheld from paychecks or you’ve made reasonable quarterly tax payments, it shouldn’t cost you anything, and you can file on the IRS website. The key is trying to be sure you’re paid up. If you think you do owe taxes, you can estimate your liability and send the payment with the extension.
Hehe, really? My accountant just had me stop yesterday to sign my tax forms. She then put everything into their envelopes and reminded me to wait until April 14 to put them in the mail. I do not owe a cent, nor am I getting anything back. she just feels (very strongly) that I should wait.
Yeah, I did mine last week. My gf has stuff on her computer and I read numbers to her, she enters them. she sends her “spreadsheet” to my accountant and she does the tax forms.
Also, AARP offers free tax preparation. They usually set up in different neighborhoods in any city. We had ours done that way for 12 years in Oregon. They did both federal and state and printed out the envelopes for mailing the payments in. The wife has e-filed the past two years with whatever that program is (Turbo?), and hates it. But it’s better than doing it by hand, and It calculates your quarterly payments, which is nice.
I concur with the basic two pieces of advice here – tax professional for complicated tax situations, and a certified tax program for simpler ones, certified for internet filing. I still shudder when I think of doing my taxes back in the 80s with a pen, calculator, and a notepad. Today tax programs make the job almost trivial once you have all your information in front of you.
I was fortunate to have had a very good tax accountant recommended to me when my taxes were hellishly complicated because I was self-employed as an independent consultant. He was very good at exploiting every possible deduction, something I’d be hopeless at.
He eventually fired me along with other small clients via a refreshingly honest letter that said he’d be retiring in a few years and meanwhile wanted to ease his workload by focusing only on a few of his biggest clients. Fortunately, this happened at almost the exact time that I went from self-employed to regular employment again, and my taxes were fairly simple again.
I use a software program (and have for years) to do taxes for myself, my wife, my daughter, etc. - usually 6-7 total for the family, but Canadian taxes are generally a lot simpler than US taxes and I was an accountant for almost 40 years, so fairly easy. The most trouble I ever had was dealing with the IRS when my mother sold her vacation condo in Florida.
There’s sometimes a problem getting all the info from everyone, but again simpler because in most cases I can now reach out to the Canada Revenue Agency from within the software and download all the official tax form info. And e-filing is dead simple.
You may ask. I’d be interested in knowing myself. I am totally ignorant about the subject. I own a business, she’s been my accountant for 28(?) years. I sign stuff, take a pile of envelopes to the post office for mailing. She does some stuff (state sales tax?) online.