Author Topic: What do you personally use to file your taxes? (Read 8875 times)

seattlecyclone · « **Reply #50 on:** January 30, 2018, 03:08:55 PM »

Why make your own spreadsheet when Excel 1040 exists? That thing does pretty much everything.

markbike528CBX · « **Reply #51 on:** January 30, 2018, 05:50:48 PM »

Quote from: seattlecyclone on January 30, 2018, 03:08:55 PM

Why make your own spreadsheet when Excel 1040 exists? That thing does pretty much everything.

A didn't know it existed
B leary of 1)excel
2) other people spreadsheets
C building my own got me " under the hood " of the forms.

But that said I'll check it out.

catccc · « **Reply #52 on:** January 30, 2018, 09:54:31 PM »

I just use fillable PDF forms and mail them in. I used tax act for a couple of years but then it stopped being free. Even if I wasn't a CPA, I think the instructions are adequate, it just takes a little extra time, and as a bonus, typically leads to a better understanding of tax laws.

mattcuffCPA · « **Reply #53 on:** January 31, 2018, 08:51:25 PM »

For simple returns I recommend

https://www.express1040.com/

It is very easy to use and you only pay a small fee ($10) to file each state return. Federal is free.

Joel · « **Reply #54 on:** January 31, 2018, 11:22:04 PM »

Quote from: JLee on January 09, 2018, 08:06:07 PM

I use freetaxusa.

Same here. And manually file California forms based on their drafts. Can’t file online through California because of our HSA.

SomedayStache · « **Reply #55 on:** February 11, 2018, 11:51:45 AM »

I'm trying out freetax usa.

The good: There was an issue with form 8889 (The HSA form). I opened a chat on a Sunday morning and got an instant response. The agent on the other end linked me to a bogleheads forum pertaining to my question. (Yay bogleheads!)

The bad: After further clarification to the agent it appears there is an issue with their software, I've been told the issue was submitted to the tier 2 department and to check back in 3 to 5 business days.

Sigh. I've already entered my info into TurboTax, now into freetaxusa (and got the same answers both times). I was hoping to efile today and now I get to weigh the relative merits of going to the irs free fillable forms (MORE DATA ENTRY) or checking back in a few days to the freetax site and hoping they fix the issue.

Michael in ABQ · « **Reply #56 on:** February 11, 2018, 03:31:11 PM »

Quote from: bender on January 31, 2018, 10:47:29 PM

Anyone know where the best deals are for TT online?

I had 3-4 different discounts (two banks, military service, one other random one) I think they were all the same. $5 of the cheapest version (Deluxe, normally about $35), $10 the next most expensive version and $15 the most expensive version.

bugbaby · « **Reply #57 on:** February 12, 2018, 07:50:49 PM »

I've used everything: manual, TurboTax, HRBlock, Taxact. I seem to get audited whenever I do manually (3 times past 7 yrs).

This year I used TurboTax but the repeated high pressure to upgrade is aggravating. I'll try freetax next year.

Sent from my KIW-L24 using Tapatalk

DenverDad · « **Reply #58 on:** February 14, 2018, 10:32:07 AM »

I've used Credit Karma last year and this year since it is completely free for state and federal filings. Easy to use as well. Before that, I used taxact.

katsiki · « **Reply #59 on:** February 14, 2018, 11:30:18 AM »

PSA: TaxAct has started charging $37 for the state filing. This is another significant price increase in my mind. Ugh

markbike528CBX · « **Reply #60 on:** February 14, 2018, 12:31:27 PM »

Nope, you are not the only one. I did check E-trade this morning and saw my 1099.

Mississippi Mudstache · « **Reply #61 on:** February 14, 2018, 01:25:42 PM »

Quote from: katsiki on February 14, 2018, 11:30:18 AM

PSA: TaxAct has started charging $37 for the state filing. This is another significant price increase in my mind. Ugh

This sucks. I've used TaxAct for several years, but this does it for me. Last two years I filed in Florida, so I didn't pay state income taxes. I'm using Free File Fillable Forms this year. Should save me $87. I notice that they don't make Form 8606 available until Feb. 22, for some weird reason. So I will have to wait until next week to finish filing.

Caoineag · « **Reply #62 on:** February 14, 2018, 01:28:30 PM »

Quote from: katsiki on February 14, 2018, 11:30:18 AM

PSA: TaxAct has started charging $37 for the state filing. This is another significant price increase in my mind. Ugh

Yup, that is what finally got me to use the free website someone mentioned up thread (freetax.com ran by Liberty Tax) this year. I had used TaxAct for a number of years but once you go from $15 to $37 to $50-ish I am done. I am just not that lazy. The free tax website worked just fine for me. And it didn't cost anything. I should have done it back when the price left the teens.

Mississippi Mudstache · « **Reply #63 on:** February 15, 2018, 10:47:03 AM »

Quote from: Caoineag on February 14, 2018, 01:28:30 PM

Quote from: katsiki on February 14, 2018, 11:30:18 AM
PSA: TaxAct has started charging $37 for the state filing. This is another significant price increase in my mind. Ugh

Yup, that is what finally got me to use the free website someone mentioned up thread (freetax.com ran by Liberty Tax) this year. I had used TaxAct for a number of years but once you go from $15 to $37 to $50-ish I am done. I am just not that lazy. The free tax website worked just fine for me. And it didn't cost anything. I should have done it back when the price left the teens.

Yep. I found TaxAct helpful when I was filing Schedule E for a rental property. I sold it the property 2016, so there is really nothing so complicated that I feel like I need the fancy software. I still filled out the forms on TaxAct, just to make sure I got the same numbers as when I did the free fillable forms. Just didn't pay for them to file it.

Helvegen · « **Reply #64 on:** February 15, 2018, 05:35:18 PM »

I used TaxAct this year because I had some fun day trading crypto last year, made some nice fiat, but the number of individual transactions was far more than I wanted to hand enter into any form. TaxAct took the csv file from Bitcoin Tax, so that's what I went with. There was really nothing more to it. I'll probably go with something else next year.

Livingthedream55 · « **Reply #65 on:** February 20, 2018, 01:51:21 PM »

Another vote for www.freetax.com (not to be confused with www.freetaxusa.com which charges $12 to efile a state return).

I have done 7 returns with varying complexity using www.freetax.com (for me, my daughters and various family members - I don't charge them anything!) and so far so good.

caracarn · « **Reply #66 on:** February 20, 2018, 02:15:30 PM »

I used TT this year. TaxAct requires you to import a CSV for brokerage accounts while TT does direct import from most. I've had enough problems with the CSV import with TaxAct before that the extra upcharge for TT was well worth the avoidance of cursing, pounding of fist, gnashing of teeth and other things that are not good resulting from a very klugey interface that is TaxAct. Sometimes I'm willing to pay less for ugly but not when I have 1,000 transactions on my 1099-B that I need to play with if they do not import correctly. Sometime the Easy button is worth the cost.

FerrumB5 · « **Reply #67 on:** February 21, 2018, 07:02:49 PM »

Hurry up.
TaxAct reduced the Plus (home+investments) price to $14.97 Fed + $18.50 state

peabody58 · « **Reply #68 on:** March 01, 2018, 06:10:51 PM »

Never paid anyone to do my taxes. It shouldn't take more than a MS degree to be able to do your own taxes.

This year I did eFile for the first time using OLT.com, a site recommended by IRS. No cost for Fed or State based on our income. Their calcs were $1 less refund than my manual calcs. I'll use them again next year for the free eFile feature.

NathanP · « **Reply #69 on:** March 02, 2018, 07:12:02 AM »

Quote from: DenverDad on February 14, 2018, 10:32:07 AM

I've used Credit Karma last year and this year since it is completely free for state and federal filings. Easy to use as well. Before that, I used taxact.

This is exactly what I did. I used CreditKarma last year (after verifying the results against TaxAct) and used them exclusively this year for both federal and state returns. Of course I compared the resulting forms against last years filings and made sure that all valid credits were computed properly. Both returns were accepted and my net cost was $0.

With the new tax law changes, I suspect that most people will be using the standard deduction for 2018. That should greatly reduce the value of tax filing software as taxes will become "easy" for those of us without rental properties or large taxable investment accounts.

Aggie1999 · « **Reply #70 on:** March 02, 2018, 09:48:53 AM »

Took three tries this year with different programs to do my taxes.

- First try: FreeTaxUSA. They couldn't deal with over the limit HSA contributions from previous tax year.
- Second try: IRS Free Fillable Forms. They don't support required statements/attachments. E-filed taxes through them and was rejected for this reason.
- Third try: TaxAct Plus ($15). Finally success. Program was much more polished than FreeTaxUSA. Also caught some errors I was doing with the Foreign Tax Credit calculation. Successfully e-filed.

I'm guessing going forward I will continue to use TaxAct. Not worth the hassle of the free programs for $15.

Notes:

- If my taxes were simple like the old days (just W-2's and 1099-INT's) then I would stick with a free program.
- I don't have state income tax so that makes things easier.

YttriumNitrate · « **Reply #71 on:** March 03, 2018, 03:59:26 PM »

For a while I used TurboTax, but once they were charging close to $150 I switched to Free Tax USA. With investments, a rental property, and filing in two states, Free Tax USA is under $30 and gave the same results as Turbo Tax in the year I switched over.

News:

Author Topic: What do you personally use to file your taxes? (Read 8875 times)