Works for Me Wednesday

I finally got our taxes in over the weekend! Whoo hoo!!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I e-file. I also do all of my paper work through Turbo Tax.

When Mr. Pete and I were first married we did it all by hand because it wasn’t that complicated, but after a few years we wondered if we were paying too much. We went to a tax preparer and were pretty happy but eventually we thought there had to be a less expensive way of getting our taxes done. That’s when we looked into Turbo tax.

Turbo Tax takes me step-by-step through the information process, very much like a tax preparer does. It asks all the questions and even jars the memory for things I have forgotten. It helps me to organize my stuff to prepare for this fact finding to get ready for next year’s tax season! It also double checks my work before I file it and helps me with the state tax as well. Since I do have a small business (e-bay and transcription) I find all of that help in preparing a Schedule C to be very helpful.

Here are some of the highlights I really appreciate.
* It transfers all of our information from the prior year onto the current year’s return. I only have to enter all of those social security numbers once and from then on, while I use this computer, it transfers automatically.
* I can save a copy of my return as a PDF file that I can print out as needed.
* It gives me a comparison from the previous year.
* As a subscriber it automatically sends me the next year’s Turbo tax in a timely manner – it also alerts me so that I don’t have an unexpected charge on my credit card.
* Lost your Turbo Tax CD? No problem! I couldn’t find mine when I wanted to load it (I’m sure I’ll find it during spring cleaning!) so I called Turbo Tax and they showed me how to download it from the net – sweet!
* Gives me the option of getting my refund directly into my bank account.
* And even when I had to pay, it’s easy to print off my return as well as the address to send off to the IRS.

The downside is that their online customer service is really  really slow!  I was on hold for over 45 minutes – but when I did get someone he really took his time with me and helped me out.  I think they just need to get more help during tax season!

And after reading this column by Dave Ramsey, I really think e-filing is the way to go, and for that I’m glad I use Turbo Tax. Works for Me!

Other Turbo Tax reviews:
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