This is the Plan for My Taxes:
I’m meeting with an accountant Saturday and have agreed to pay him $100 to do my taxes for me. It’s a little disappointing, since I planned to use either Turbotax or H & R Block online to do it myself and save money. But a few weekends ago, I got all the way through one of the programs before I realized I had too many questions.
How can it be that my taxes could be complicated? It’s not like I own property or make an insanely high salary, I know. But even as a single female, there are a lot of extra forms to fill out and questions that they provoke. Let me explain:
1) I work two jobs, and I have freelanced = W2s and 1099-MISC.
2) Even though I didn’t sell any stocks this year, I made some dividend and interest income. More forms.
3) I was a full-time student the first half of the year. Education form.
4) I have a Roth IRA. Genuinely, I don’t know if I need to do anything about this, but I know the auto-program wanted to know about it.
Plus, the real kicker was the result of my try: it said I would get a $500+ refund for federal and owe $5 for state. For all I know this could be true, but I feel pretty unsure.
Long story short: I’m biting the bullet and trusting the professional.
Filed under budgeting |
7 Responses to “This is the Plan for My Taxes:”
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I feel you, taxes get so complicated so quickly! This year I’m using turbo tax, every other year I’ve gone to someone to do them. I’m paranoid that I’m going to screw up somehow, but I’m biting the bullet and I’m probably going to review them 100 times before I press submit!
I have loved using Turbo Tax online for the last few years. This year I paid for the $10 service, but I don’t remember why. I just used the free service before.
There were a few years when I tried to just do them myself on paper, but it was too confusing. I really enjoy doing them on Turbo Tax — it’s fun to watch the refund number get bigger!
Here’s a good exercise: get the forms and do them yourself, then compare them to what your accountant does and see what you did differently.
I haven’t gotten all my 1099s yet! Grrr! I hate it when places are slow about that!
FGS: That’s exactly what I’m going to do! It will be interesting to see what he comes up with, and I still have my work saved in the online program. Thanks!
(Oh, and I know about the slowness! What in the world?)
Have you figured about how much in self employment taxes you pay with the 1099 misc? I didn’t get one for freelance work and it was $200. Did you deduct any expenses for the freelance work?
$200, sf? For how much gross income? UGH!
I’m just hoping the accountant will be able to figure it all out; he still has the paperwork, and I’m waiting to hear back.
[...] GOOD decision! Posted by gradgirl under budgeting | Tags: taxes | When I was going to do my own taxes, I came up with a $500 federal refund and would have owed the state $5 (Oh, [...]