I just did my taxes using TurboTax Online, and it looks like I owe around $1500 to the govt. I've always used Turbotax, but this is by far the largest amount I've ever owed. Is H&R block or Jackson Hewitt really worth $150-$200, and will they be able to lower what I owe?

P.S. I haven't paid Turbotax yet (you don't have to until you file), so I'm not out any cash yet.

 

i did turbo tax for the gf but she didnt want it because she has trust issues. so instead she took it to H&R, paid $100 and got nearly the same results.

 

unless you have lots of tax liabilities, deductions, and deferrals, you'll get the same results.

 

Why not just 1040EZ it?

 

That sucks. I volunteered this year to do taxes for people and on my spare time, I did my taxes. I'll receive a $643 check deposted to my account sometime next week. $1500 is a lot of money that you owe to the Government. Did you not have any Federal witholdings for the whole year???

To actually answer your question. A professional tax preparer is only worth it if you have a shit load of stuff. For ex: Daily stock trader, farm income, a shit load of self business expenses, and much more. The IRS promotes people to actually try and file their own taxes. The 1040's have blocks and for each papers that you use, they have step by step examples to walk you through it. It just takes time.

Most cases, people just don't know what to do with their taxes and they don't know how to send it to the IRS and such, which is why they go to places. An average single 18-25 year old's taxes should be piece of cakes.

 

:werd: I have no capital income, business expenses or anything so mine are pretty simple.

I talked my gf into letting me do them and saving $80...she got a whopping $72 back :chuckles:

 

when entering deductions

ie milage, office equipment etc..

dont use numbers like $500 and get the red flag raised, instead use $487 :run:

 

I did have taxes withheld - I only claimed 1 on my W4 - but I made about $10k more in total taxable income than I did last year.

I also had about $7k in "capital gains distributions" from leftover college fund money. But I know next to nothing about that account, it was set up by my parents when I was a kid, is completely managed by my Morgan-Stanley guy and I didn't make any withdrawals or recieve any income/dividends from it in 2006, but as soon as I put in that $7k number my taxes went from getting money back to owing $1500.

 

if you didnt receive any income from your dividends, why the hell are you claiming it?

If it's not reported to the IRS, do they know about it? If you received income, a 1099 should be issued to you from the bank.

 

maybe ill do my taxes tonight