Tax Man

I did my own taxes. I feel accomplished. Last year we had a mess to clean up after Jackson Hewitt screwed up. Originally I felt they only were at fault on our state return but after looking things over today, I realized they neglected a deduction of student loan interest on our Federal as well. My plan was too get everything ready to drop off at a different tax preparer office. Then I thought I would just look and see if Turbo Tax would work for us. But after a few minutes of trying to load their website I ditched the effort. After all years ago I really messed up our taxes using Turbo Tax. I failed to file an adoption credit form but their system didn't catch it and I submitted it with the error. About two or three years later we got a letter from the state of California saying we owe a boat load of money. Fortunately our IRS is really quite amazing and they were able to help us refile the right form and eventually have the bill zeroed out.

Anyway, I got all my schedules, all my extra work pages, and interest reports together and dug in myself. What else are you suppose to do when you are snowed in? Four hours later I am done. The amount of reading I just did was uncanny. I cashed out a small 401K this year, had IRA contributions, TSP up the wazoo, and it is the last year for our adoption credit, each one required extra forms and lots of calculations, but it is done.

I actually encourage any of my friends to avoid tax prepares if possible. They charge so much and the IRS is so easy to work with. You can load the 1040 from their site and each line explains what you need to enter. If you need help they specifically tell you which page of the instruction manual it is on. If you have time it is so worth it. Last year we paid over 300.00 to have ours done, and they messed up. Plus Turbo Tax says you can register with them for less than 15.00 to get live help, but the IRS offers it free! And they have a rather short phone tree.

Okay off my soap box. Like I said - I just feel accomplished.