I’m a big proponent of do it yourself financial solutions and when it comes to taxes my feelings are no different. CPA’s and tax professionals are expensive and they probably don’t make sense for about 90% of us. Even though our tax system is pretty insane and convoluted, as long as you understand the basics online tax software can make your life a lot easier and save you some money. If you can answer simple questions about your life and enter a few financial data points, you have the ability to do your taxes yourself. I think half the battle is accumulating all of your documents and recording your expenses anyways and you’ll have to do that whether you use a tax professional or not.
I think it’s important to have a basic understanding of how taxes work before you do your taxes. A lot of people think that if they go to a CPA or tax professional, they’re completely off the hook in the event of an audit but that couldn’t be further from the truth. As long as there was no negligence on the CPA’s part, you are completely responsible for your tax return. If you provide wrong information that leads to an error in your tax return you are the one who will be responsible. I know it’s not fun to figure out your taxes but you should spend some time researching the subject before handing off your tax return or just entering your info online.
TurboTax 2013 Review
Turbo Tax is the number one rated tax software for a reason. They cater their software to every day folk like you and I. I’ve used Turbo Tax for the past 5 years and although my taxes are very complicated, Turbo Tax does make it easy to get my returns done. It seems like every year I struggle between going to a CPA or doing my taxes myself and I always pick the latter.
If you’ve used Turbo Tax in the past, a lot of the features are the same. Here’s a very detailed review of their services that I did last year if you’d like more information. They do have some new features this year though:
- Personalized experience for returning customers: Using data from the prior year’s return, TurboTax 2013 makes tax preparation faster and easier than ever by automatically transferring your personal information and prior year tax return data, including W-2 wage and salary information from your employer, and then adapts itself based on that information to slash screens and questions that are not relevant to their specific tax situation.
- Customized MyTurboTax home base: MyTurboTax offers a simple, unified home base where customers can access important tax tasks and information. You can easily view a summary of last year’s tax return as well as a timeline of your entire TurboTax history.
- Quick, easy access to answers: TurboTax provides direct access to answers and experts from every screen.
- Get More for Your Refund: Exclusively with TurboTax, customers can choose to use part of their federal tax refund to purchase an Amazon.com Gift Card and TurboTax will add an extra 5 to 10 percent to the amount.
Turbo Tax Giveaway
This year I’ll be giving away 5 Premier Turbo Tax codes for my loyal readers. You’ll also be able to file your state taxes for free with them. The Premier version is currently listed at $49.99 on TurboTax’s website so this is a pretty nice deal if you’re in the market for tax software. I’ve also made it very easy to earn multiple entries this year by sharing, following and signing up for our e-mail list. If you’re already subscribed or already following us on social media, then you can use that option to enter. We will be verifying all winning entries so good luck and feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all!
If you’d like to go ahead and buy a version of TurboTax, please use my affiliate link and I will receive a small commission on your sale.
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Harry,
Thanks for writing all these. Wondering if you’ve ever used TaxAct before? I somehow started using it (low price) a few years ago and it seems to work well. I’m kind of astonished at how much TurboTax costs (especially for state filing).
However, I’ve never used anything else, so if I win one of these codes, I’m tempted to try both and compare features (and results before filing). Maybe I should write about it then. But don’t want to do that if you’ve already tried both.
In particular, the “import from last year” feature is maybe what keeps me tied to TaxAct (high switching cost).
Cheers,
Blake
No problem Blake. I haven’t tried TaxAct before, maybe I’ll shoot them an e-mail next year and see if they can give me some giveaway copies though 🙂
TurboTax is more expensive but they seem to offer better support, more hand-holding type of service. Similar to you, I use the auto-import feature which is one of the reasons why I’ve stuck with TurboTax.
You can start the process for free with TT though and only pay when/if you file. So that might be a good option for you to try.
I have freelance work this year for the first time and I’m really nervous I’m going to owe. I need to learn the ins and outs of expensing my “home office.” Teach us!!!
Home office is a tough one but can definitely help you out when it comes to tax time. Essentially, you take your office as a percentage of your home and you’re able to deduct that percentage for rent, utilities, etc.
It might be a good idea to go to a CPA/professional and have them help you with your taxes and then you can see what they did and it should be easy to copy from then on. There are lots of deductions you can take, it’s just all a question of how much you want to push the envelope.
What I like about taxes is the ease of TurboTax…it’s actually fun to use. What I dislike is actually paying taxes but who doesn’t?
Haha well if you’re getting money back, doing your taxes can be pretty fun!
Nice giveaway hope to win.
Thanks Mike, good luck! And don’t forget, you can actually earn up to 14 entries.
Received my win Thank you.
Thanks for entering and congrats on the win!
I’ve used TurboTax online for years and have had no issues with that product. This year, though, with income from side hustles, and a penalty for not paying estimated taxes (Oops!) I’m wondering if I should hire a professional.
Don’t worry Rebecca, I made that same mistake a few years ago, still use Turbo Tax though. I do have a similar tax situation though but I just don’t know if it’s worth it to pay $300-$500 for a CPA plus most of them charge $500-$750 for a business! Yikes, that’s a lot of money.
I just finished my return with the online software, so I know how much TT says I owe. I’m so tempted to hire a CPA this year and compare his results with TurboTaxes. But I’m not sure I want to fork out the $$ for the experiment!
I like getting money back. I like the time it takes to file.
Haha, yea getting money back is always nice but do you save it or spend it? 😉
Everyone realizes that when you get money back from the government, it means you gave them a loan with 0% interest, right? I’d rather be as close to 0 as possible and owe if anything.
But, since we’re humans, it is unexpected/unbudgeted money and probably elicits some unconscious psychological “high” which is probably why we like it :).
Blake, you are always on top of the opportunity cost of our money, I like that.
Personally, I think it’s better to owe though for two reasons. The first is the fact that the opportunity cost on a refund will be very small(especially if you consider its true compounding nature – ie a $1,000 refund doesn’t mean you would have been able to invest all that money for an entire year since you have to divide it equally over 12 months). Second, I think it’s a good idea to let the gov hold your money and force you to save. You can’t spend what you don’t have(well sort of) but of course this is all predicated on you actually saving your refund 🙂
Thanks
What do you like most about taxes?
Getting a refund back
And what do you dislike most about taxes?
complications involved in filing, plus the need to keep the receipts for years- as a proof.
Yea I hope that one day taxes become simpler so that the avg. person can do and understand their own taxes. Doubt that will ever happen though.
I really don’t like keeping receipts and documenting my taxable expenses. It’s such a hassle. But mostly I don’t like the stress of wondering if I did something wrong. I’ve used TurboTax before and it really walks you through it nicely.
Yea it really is a hassle and that’s the same problem I face. I’m pretty sure I’m doing it right but taxes are so dang complicated I could easily be making a mistake and costing myself money.
My favorite thing about taxes is getting it DONE! I actually don’t like getting a refund – why give the government a tax-free loan?
Yea it’s definitely a good feeling once it’s all said and done. I like getting a refund but for different reasons than most since I always just save my refund. I might have been tempted to spend that money if I got it in smaller amounts throughout the year.
Plus the opp. cost of an incrementally annualized loan is very low right now(maybe 1% or less?).
What I like about taxes?
Using software that helps to automate the process!
What I dislike about taxes?
Compiling the documentation and receipts! I know…a necessary evil. 🙂
Yea TT definitely makes it easy. Documentation sucks but I try to stay on top of it all through the year so when I do my taxes it’s all right there and all I have to do is enter it.