Author Topic: Tax n00b Looking for Help  (Read 839 times)

Captain DIY

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    • DIY to FI
Tax n00b Looking for Help
« on: October 30, 2017, 08:22:22 AM »
Hello Wise Mustachians,
I have always had a CPA friend of mine help me with my taxes. For the record, I'm married, but for the ease of writing I will be referring to myself and my wife as "me" or "my" unless I forget, nothing is really solid here.
This CPA friend is no longer available, and I'm realizing this is something I really need to know how to do myself, since I don't trust my ability to find someone who will recognize what I want out of my money and not try to screw me or sell me something I don't need.
I have a full time job and I own a business as a sole proprietor, my wife has 2 part time jobs and also owns a business as a sole proprietor. We have two dependents as well, and an investment account at Vanguard. I also have a 457 and a 403b, and my wife has a retirement account through her employer (I want to say it is a 401k).
We own a home, with about $130k left on the mortgage, so I guess we really just borrow a home from the bank.
This all seems awfully complicated to me, and I don't want to leave money on the table by not claiming properly, or worse, not give Uncle Sam enough info and have him knocking on my door.
I'm sure there are lots of folks here with tons of experience and know-how, and I'm hoping to pick your brains.

terran

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Re: Tax n00b Looking for Help
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2017, 11:45:03 AM »
It shouldn't be too bad. What I did the last year we used a tax preparer was to do our taxes myself using both turbotax and taxact. Turned out it wasn't too bad and I got the same results as our tax preparer. I found I liked taxact better (and it's generally cheaper), so I've used that and done our taxes myself the last few years. No reason you couldn't do the same thing by entering everything yourself to "prove" you can do it, then comparing things to last year's tax return to see if there's anything you missed.