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15th is Tax Tuesday
By JD Bluefield | April 4, 2008
Although it sounds like some hack of a radio bit, there’s no prize to call in for. This year, April 15th is the day that Federal Taxes are due this year. With that date coming up fast, several people have asked me how I do my taxes and if I’ve ever used any of the tax software available.
Tax Software is a gift from the gods. Tax software has been around for quite some time, but growing up I didn’t have dependents or itemize my deductions so I never had the inclination to try it. Filling out the 1040EZ was pretty simple with just a part time job and a single bank account. Once my returns started to get more an more complicated I decided to give TurboTax a try. (I’m sure that if you’ve tried to calculate the cost basis of a stock purchased on different dates, you know its not a party.) I bought TurboTax Premier due to my stock and real estate holdings, and have never looked back since.
There are many different tax programs, but from what I’ve read TurboTax is currently the best. At the prices they charge, I also think its the most cost effective. With a mortgage, stocks and more bank accounts than i can count on one hand, I’m positive that there is no way a professional tax preparer could charge me less. Ironically, I’ve even caught CPA’s who use TurboTax to do their own personal taxes (but would never admit it). That’s all the convincing I need.
One really great thing about TurboTax is the way it guides you through the taxes and information you need. So you also learn what going on, which is critical in knowing how to make your money work more efficiently for you. Now with online banking and stock brokers, TurboTax can automatically download all the information it needs. Thus no more waiting for forms in the mail. I’ve actually looked these numbers up online, finished my taxes in the first weeks of January and received my refund before anyone else.
TurboTax is made by Intuit, which also make the personal finance/budgeting program Quicken. If you want to streamline and Engineer your personal financing and tax filing you can use Quicken to budget and track your spending/savings, then import it directly into TurboTax.
- By the way, again, I’m no tax professional, but I use TurboTax Premier for stocks and real estate.
- My friends who have kids, got married last year or itemize their deductions use TurboTax Deluxe.
- If you file don’t itemize your deductions or have dependents, and file a 1040EZ, TurboTax Basic should work; TurboTax will now do that for you for FREE! Don’t believe me, see for yourself!
Topics: Taxes |
2 Responses to “15th is Tax Tuesday”
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April 8th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I never did my taxes on my own before, I used to go H&R for couple years and then I took it to a shady CPA guy that lived close to me. I just got stationed in Japan and I didnt really want to fill out the forms and send them in the mail so I bought Turbo tax. Me and my wife used turbo tax and found it was pretty easy seeing as it was our first time preparing our own taxes. I think it took us about 1-2 hours each but that was mostly due to us deducting a whole bunch of donations we had made. It was easy to send the forms electronicaly and it even gives you an email conformation saying that the IRS or State of HI accpeted your forms. Then about 3 weeks later we saw money had been directly deposited into our accounts.
I would highly recomend Turbo Tax to anyone and I plan on using it for this years tax returns too.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I’ve never done my taxes on my own either (My parents are both CPAs and do it for me). They both use Turbo Tax and highly recommend it as well.