why e-file

[jimmymax]

i will be out of town the weekend of april 14-15 -- which would traditionally be my income tax weekend -- so i am committed to completing my taxes in the month of march. with the mixed blessing of only the duke women to focus on (and a rotisserie baseball draft to prep for) this should be easier.

as usual i will owe money. i am wondering (not to the point of initiating a poll) why, especially if one owes money, would anyone PAY to e-file?

anyone?

[Tommac]

i will be out of town the weekend of april 14-15 -- which would traditionally be my income tax weekend -- so i am committed to completing my taxes in the month of march. with the mixed blessing of only the duke women to focus on (and a rotisserie baseball draft to prep for) this should be easier.

as usual i will owe money. i am wondering (not to the point of initiating a poll) why, especially if one owes money, would anyone PAY to e-file?

anyone?

I agree. I'm getting a whopping $21.00 on the federal return. Why would I want to spend $20-25 to e-file?

[hughgs]

i will be out of town the weekend of april 14-15 -- which would traditionally be my income tax weekend -- so i am committed to completing my taxes in the month of march. with the mixed blessing of only the duke women to focus on (and a rotisserie baseball draft to prep for) this should be easier.

as usual i will owe money. i am wondering (not to the point of initiating a poll) why, especially if one owes money, would anyone PAY to e-file?

anyone?

I don't know if this helps, but taxes don't need to be postmarked until the April 17th this year.

[Clipsfan]

I agree. I'm getting a whopping $21.00 on the federal return. Why would I want to spend $20-25 to e-file?

I'm just using the standard Turbo Tax online, and having been a student for a large part of last year I'm getting a refund, so there's little reason not to e-file. However, the federal e-file is included in the $10 or so I'm paying for Turbo Tax. I think they only charge a little extra for the state e-file, and as I get a refund from them as well I'm just going to pay the money. I don't mind spending a total of $30 for my taxes, and I'm lazy enough not to want to go to the post office and wait in line to get the receipt that I sent it certified mail. That might be worth the $20 by itself...lines here tend to be really long.

[DevilAlumna]

I'm just using the standard Turbo Tax online, and having been a student for a large part of last year I'm getting a refund, so there's little reason not to e-file. However, the federal e-file is included in the $10 or so I'm paying for Turbo Tax. I think they only charge a little extra for the state e-file, and as I get a refund from them as well I'm just going to pay the money. I don't mind spending a total of $30 for my taxes, and I'm lazy enough not to want to go to the post office and wait in line to get the receipt that I sent it certified mail. That might be worth the $20 by itself...lines here tend to be really long.

I got married this year, and due to choices of filing jointly, I'm bummed to no longer be using TurboTax. I've used them since 2000, and love the fact that they store each and every year for me. (I have occasionally run into the need to look up past information while away from my home files, and viola, it's just a URL away!) I also love the rollover of information, etc., including looking up employer info from the prior year, and import of 1099-Div/Int/B info from Fidelity/Vanguard/other online service. That's worth the $11.92 they would have charged me this year. (If you're a Bank of America customer, you get a discount if you know the sneaky URL.)

[Clipsfan]

I got married this year, and due to choices of filing jointly, I'm bummed to no longer be using TurboTax. I've used them since 2000, and love the fact that they store each and every year for me. (I have occasionally run into the need to look up past information while away from my home files, and viola, it's just a URL away!) I also love the rollover of information, etc., including looking up employer info from the prior year, and import of 1099-Div/Int/B info from Fidelity/Vanguard/other online service. That's worth the $11.92 they would have charged me this year. (If you're a Bank of America customer, you get a discount if you know the sneaky URL.)

That's definitely a plus, and worth it just in aggravation saved. I'm getting married this year, and I'm guessing that I'll have to pay the accountant whom my wife-to-be uses (and pay a whole lot more than $30).

[gus]

I got married this year, and due to choices of filing jointly, I'm bummed to no longer be using TurboTax. I've used them since 2000, and love the fact that they store each and every year for me.

Turbotax can handle joint returns.

[DevilAlumna]

Turbotax can handle joint returns.

Oh, I know, we tried both out; the husband was able to better manipulate the numbers on his HRBlock online service, so we went with his instead.

Hey, I gotta let him win a few, right? :D

[hughgs]

That's definitely a plus, and worth it just in aggravation saved. I'm getting married this year, and I'm guessing that I'll have to pay the accountant whom my wife-to-be uses (and pay a whole lot more than $30).

Why would marriage change your taxes that much that you would need a CPA? If the only thing that changed was your status simply check a different box and use a different set of tables? The non-web version of Turbo-Tax is pretty good at leading you through the tax maze. I've got some pretty complicated taxes (25 pages submitted to the IRS this year) and Turbo-Tax was able to take care of it all. That being said, the state versions tend to be a bit, uh, less friendly, for more complicated returns.

On the off chance that your wife doesn't trust you with the taxes, then let her CPA do the taxes next year. After, that you'll have a boiler plate for the year after and can make sure that Turbo-Tax isn't missing anything.

[gus]

Why would marriage change your taxes that much that you would need a CPA? If the only thing that changed was your status simply check a different box and use a different set of tables?

Why would marriage make his wife's taxes simpler?

If the only thing that changes is her status, she still has whatever complexities or difficulties that compelled her to take her return to a CPA to begin with.

[Clipsfan]

Why would marriage make his wife's taxes simpler?

If the only thing that changes is her status, she still has whatever complexities or difficulties that compelled her to take her return to a CPA to begin with.

That's probably more to the point, and as we'll be filing jointly I'll go with what makes her comfortable. As DevilAlumna said above, sometimes you've got to let them win one. It's not that big of a price to pay, and does remove a huge headache. It's also possible that I'm not actually maximizing my refund, even though as a student my income was minimal over the last 2 years.

[hughgs]

Why would marriage make his wife's taxes simpler?

If the only thing that changes is her status, she still has whatever complexities or difficulties that compelled her to take her return to a CPA to begin with.

I'm not saying that his wife's taxes would be simpler. I'm asking why would marriage make the taxes so much harder that he has to hire a CPA. He made it seem that he needed to use the CPA simply because he was getting married. Until he sees her taxes there is no way of knowing if the CPA is required.

[blublood]

I don't know if this helps, but taxes don't need to be postmarked until the April 17th this year.

This is true, however if you *owe* money to the government, the check has to be at the IRS building by April 15th. We got into a huge mess last year with an incompetantly-done tax return and ended up owing money.

Several people on the IRS customer service line (yes, you can talk to a real person and they're actually very helpful) gave us this same information - that if you mail a check postmarked Apr. 17th and it arrives Apr. 19th, you will owe a penalty.

[hughgs]

This is true, however if you *owe* money to the government, the check has to be at the IRS building by April 15th. We got into a huge mess last year with an incompetantly-done tax return and ended up owing money.

Several people on the IRS customer service line (yes, you can talk to a real person and they're actually very helpful) gave us this same information - that if you mail a check postmarked Apr. 17th and it arrives Apr. 19th, you will owe a penalty.

Hmm, I perused the IRS web site and what you say seems to be true. In the past when I owed money I always sent it in on the 15th. It was never more than $100 so maybe the penalty was too small for the IRS to worry about. Thanks for the info!