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serynFinished taxes.
Had horrible problems but it was the fault of Schwab sending a non-useful statement that did not include the numbers the IRS insists upon getting. Had to login to online account to get actual information. Once that was sorted, it was relatively easy although quite tedious.
I used the online TurboTax with the 25% discount (available from many financial institutions and AAA) because it did not require me to install anything on my computer and does not use Silverlight and did not require me to know what level I needed in advance.
Amazon has a new reports feature which sends a CSV file. So I got one with all my 2010 purchases. California requires UseTax payments for online purchases and my argument against that was that it's too damned much work for the purchaser. I don't quibble about the money, but I really hated having to dig through a year's worth of emails to see what all I bought and whether it's taxable or already taxed. (Lands End purchases are taxed already because they're owned by Sears which has stores in all 50 states.) The new Amazon reporting feature is quite useful in this regard. Although it's kind of creepy, it would actually help if everyone was required to send you an end of year summary.
I spent $65.15 to file using TurboTax Online. The cost for filing this at H&R Block, where they "guarantee" my largest refund but ignored several items because the cost of the additional paperwork exceeded the deduction--- was more than $200. It took me 3.5 hours. It would have taken 2 or 2.5 if I had had the correct form from Schwab to start with. So I figure I saved about $150 for about 3 hours of my time. $50/hour is a pretty good rate.
I'm going to spend some of the $150 I saved by filing myself on buying toner so I can actually print my own copies.
Had horrible problems but it was the fault of Schwab sending a non-useful statement that did not include the numbers the IRS insists upon getting. Had to login to online account to get actual information. Once that was sorted, it was relatively easy although quite tedious.
I used the online TurboTax with the 25% discount (available from many financial institutions and AAA) because it did not require me to install anything on my computer and does not use Silverlight and did not require me to know what level I needed in advance.
Amazon has a new reports feature which sends a CSV file. So I got one with all my 2010 purchases. California requires UseTax payments for online purchases and my argument against that was that it's too damned much work for the purchaser. I don't quibble about the money, but I really hated having to dig through a year's worth of emails to see what all I bought and whether it's taxable or already taxed. (Lands End purchases are taxed already because they're owned by Sears which has stores in all 50 states.) The new Amazon reporting feature is quite useful in this regard. Although it's kind of creepy, it would actually help if everyone was required to send you an end of year summary.
I spent $65.15 to file using TurboTax Online. The cost for filing this at H&R Block, where they "guarantee" my largest refund but ignored several items because the cost of the additional paperwork exceeded the deduction--- was more than $200. It took me 3.5 hours. It would have taken 2 or 2.5 if I had had the correct form from Schwab to start with. So I figure I saved about $150 for about 3 hours of my time. $50/hour is a pretty good rate.
I'm going to spend some of the $150 I saved by filing myself on buying toner so I can actually print my own copies.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 05:07 pm (UTC)I actually install TurboTax -- mainly because I've been doing so since forever and have every damned electronic tax return I've ever created.
I hate doing taxes, but persuade myself to get them over and done with in February. Except I owe money to the state -- most years it's about $50 -- I'll mail that April 15 on general principles. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 05:17 pm (UTC)My computer is 5 years old. I try not to install software. Simon and I had a discussion about whether using the online service was a privacy concern and he finally said, "They're going to send it somewhere over the internet and who's to say they're not grabbing all the data anyway."
And this way I didn't have to wait for anything to arrive in the mail, because if I put it off then I'd be in the midst of recovering from the gum surgery.
We usually owe the state money and get money back from the fed. I'd really prefer not to do that because the state is bitchy about underpayment.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 05:26 pm (UTC)I might see if I can file my state taxes on their website and just cut and past the numbers from TurboTax.