Tax returns

[Audrey II]

(potentially a very boring thread but im curious)

how do you guys do your tax returns? who do you use? how much did you pay? does anyone use an accountant?



its fucked up that the government doesnt just have a turbo tax setup themselves for us to use free of charge considering we are letting them borrow money for a year from us...but id bet that turbotax and other services lobbied against that idea so they can continue to make money.


i usually file my return with turbo tax online, but this year i got charged 80 bucks... 40 for state and 40 for federal. after spending hours and hours on the phone with their customer service being put on hold and me trying to get a hold of a manager i found out that if you make something like 35k or more a year that you do not get free federal return filing with turbo tax. this is new for this year. it used to be free federal, and pay for state filing.

[shucknjive]

when i applied 4 college loans
my dads yearly income was 12k

[Meekin]

Luckily my brother is a financial advisor and CPA so he does mine. I believe he recommends turbo tax tho

[formula420]

I am an accountant and I use TurboTax because tax sucks and I don't even want to think about it. TT will often find extra tax breaks that end up paying for itself. Plus just the ease of automatic w2 entry and prior year info.

Protip - don't put anything in withholding. Take the money from your checks and invest it to get some interest. Just make sure you still have it when your annual is due.

[43]

(potentially a very boring thread but im curious)

how do you guys do your tax returns? who do you use? how much did you pay? does anyone use an accountant?



its fucked up that the government doesnt just have a turbo tax setup themselves for us to use free of charge considering we are letting them borrow money for a year from us...but id bet that turbotax and other services lobbied against that idea so they can continue to make money.


i usually file my return with turbo tax online, but this year i got charged 80 bucks... 40 for state and 40 for federal. after spending hours and hours on the phone with their customer service being put on hold and me trying to get a hold of a manager i found out that if you make something like 35k or more a year that you do not get free federal return filing with turbo tax. this is new for this year. it used to be free federal, and pay for state filing.

Fuck paying to file. H.R. Block is free for state and federal filing.

Edit: They changed it for all providers now. Have to be under 69k. Damn.

https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp

[JB]

My wife's Aunt is a CPA and she does ours. We still pay her like $80, but I'm fine with that. I don't like working for free for family, so why should she?

I'm hoping we get a solid return this year. I've only got a few grand left in loans to pay off and I'm hoping to knock those out. If there's any left, it's probably going to home repairs that I've been putting off. Maybe a new guitar pedal too.

[fakie nollie]

I e-filed my 9-5 taxes with Turbo Tax and owe 900 federal but am getting 500 back on state. I have no clue why. I need to get a kid or something.

Putting off submitting docs around stock trades as long as possible

[arrbee]

I use a CPA buddy. Me, my current wife and my ex wife all drive over there together. My ex and I have 2 kids together and I have one with my wife now.

We hand him all our documents and he runs it every possible legal way to get the most return. Then we figure out who keeps what on our end. Been working pretty well the last 5-6 years or so.

Charges us $200 for a few hours of work. Totally worth it

[iKobrakai]

I'm from Gay Europe so my work does everything for me. Got 150$ back last year but usualy it's close to zero.

[Betaphenylethylalamine]

My income taxes make zero sense.

At the same income, one year I get a 2500 return, the next year I might get 8500.

But it's always somewhere in between there

[munchbox]

Maybe you can go to H&R Block but TJs got paperwork to fill.

[TheLurper]

Despite hating the company and the fact they lobby to screw us out of tax return system that makes sense, I usually Turbo Tax it.

Despite the advice not to overpay, I overpay and usually get a refund equal to at least a full paycheck each year. I'd rather get a lump sum at the end of the year instead of risking a surprise bill.



Finally, a good piece of advice I learned at a young age is never ever turn down more income. Most people seem to have no idea how tax brackets work and because of this they make really poor decisions.

[iKobrakai]

Despite hating the company and the fact they lobby to screw us out of tax return system that makes sense, I usually Turbo Tax it.

Despite the advice not to overpay, I overpay and usually get a refund equal to at least a full paycheck each year. I'd rather get a lump sum at the end of the year instead of risking a surprise bill.



Finally, a good piece of advice I learned at a young age is never ever turn down more income. Most people seem to have no idea how tax brackets work and because of this they make really poor decisions.

Yeah, I heard something about that if you overpay and then get the money back in return you lose the potentional interest rate you could have made by investing. That, however, requires that you know what you're doing.

[arrbee]

My income taxes make zero sense.

At the same income, one year I get a 2500 return, the next year I might get 8500.

But it's always somewhere in between there

Credits and rates change year to year. New credits pop up. At least this is what my tax guy says. I've steadily been getting more back every year. This year is going to suck since I didn't spend any money on child care, usually that one alone gets me $2k back. But I bought a house last year so I am hoping they offset.

[theSketchLord]

I dunno what it's like where you are but here in Adelaide you can go through your local library.
They have this amazing accountant who does the whole thing for free.

As far as I'm aware most councils do.

[Betaphenylethylalamine]

In canada you can also just send in your shit to the government and force them to do it for free.

I never pay to do taxes anymore.

And to whomever said "never turn down income", I found out the hard way that "overworking" is rediculous financially.

If I work 62 hours per week vrs 75, I make exactly the same.

Overtime can be a real bitch if you work too much

[PeanutGallery]

Done both Turbo and an actual accountant.

Payment was cheaper by a bit with turbo and you don't have to leave your house...

Do Turbo.

[TheLurper]

And to whomever said "never turn down income", I found out the hard way that "overworking" is rediculous financially.

If I work 62 hours per week vrs 75, I make exactly the same.

Overtime can be a real bitch if you work too much

This makes zero sense. "I earn time and a half for another 13 hours per week, but I don't make anymore money." Unless your boss is stealing from your pocket, this cannot be true.

This isn't how taxes work (excluding deductions and credits). As a Canadian, you pay 15% on the first $48,535 of your taxable income, THEN you pay 20.5% on the next $48,534 of taxable income you may earn, and so on. Unless you are getting some specific credit/deduction, there is no reason to turn down more money.

And, even then it probably isn't worth it. I've had people tell me not to pay my student loans because I get a tax deduction. Great. I'll pay 2K in interest and then gov will give me a 300 tax deduction. I'm glad I "saved" 300 dollars on my taxes by giving a ton of money to a private mega corp.

My boss makes 200K (absurd), some people assume (not counting deductions or credits) she would have to pay 24% of her income, which is completely wrong and not how brackets work. Due to the bracket system, she'll pay 18% of her total income in fed taxes.

I will just barely make it into the next tax bracket this year. However, this means out of all of my income only the last 6K will be taxed at the higher level. I make a lot more by accepting money than I would by turning it down.

[Betaphenylethylalamine]

Expand Quote

And to whomever said "never turn down income", I found out the hard way that "overworking" is rediculous financially.

If I work 62 hours per week vrs 75, I make exactly the same.

Overtime can be a real bitch if you work too much

[close]

This makes zero sense. "I earn time and a half for another 13 hours per week, but I don't make anymore money." Unless your boss is stealing from your pocket, this cannot be true.

This isn't how taxes work (excluding deductions and credits). As a Canadian, you pay 15% on the first $48,535 of your taxable income, THEN you pay 20.5% on the next $48,534 of taxable income you may earn, and so on. Unless you are getting some specific credit/deduction, there is no reason to turn down more money.

And, even then it probably isn't worth it. I've had people tell me not to pay my student loans because I get a tax deduction. Great. I'll pay 2K in interest and then gov will give me a 300 tax deduction. I'm glad I "saved" 300 dollars on my taxes by giving a ton of money to a private mega corp.

My boss makes 200K (absurd), some people assume (not counting deductions or credits) she would have to pay 24% of her income, which is completely wrong and not how brackets work. Due to the bracket system, she'll pay 18% of her total income in fed taxes.

I will just barely make it into the next tax bracket this year. However, this means out of all of my income only the last 6K will be taxed at the higher level. I make a lot more by accepting money than I would by turning it down.

Its absolutely true. The amount taxed is rediculous once a certain amount of ot is worked.

BUT, it also depends where you are.

Example I posted was ontario

In Alberta I worked insane hours, for years, and it was well worth it.

So there is other factors to consider.

[TheLurper]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

And to whomever said "never turn down income", I found out the hard way that "overworking" is rediculous financially.

If I work 62 hours per week vrs 75, I make exactly the same.

Overtime can be a real bitch if you work too much

[close]

This makes zero sense. "I earn time and a half for another 13 hours per week, but I don't make anymore money." Unless your boss is stealing from your pocket, this cannot be true.

This isn't how taxes work (excluding deductions and credits). As a Canadian, you pay 15% on the first $48,535 of your taxable income, THEN you pay 20.5% on the next $48,534 of taxable income you may earn, and so on. Unless you are getting some specific credit/deduction, there is no reason to turn down more money.

And, even then it probably isn't worth it. I've had people tell me not to pay my student loans because I get a tax deduction. Great. I'll pay 2K in interest and then gov will give me a 300 tax deduction. I'm glad I "saved" 300 dollars on my taxes by giving a ton of money to a private mega corp.

My boss makes 200K (absurd), some people assume (not counting deductions or credits) she would have to pay 24% of her income, which is completely wrong and not how brackets work. Due to the bracket system, she'll pay 18% of her total income in fed taxes.

I will just barely make it into the next tax bracket this year. However, this means out of all of my income only the last 6K will be taxed at the higher level. I make a lot more by accepting money than I would by turning it down.

[close]

Its absolutely true. The amount taxed is rediculous once a certain amount of ot is worked.

BUT, it also depends where you are.

Example I posted was ontario

In Alberta I worked insane hours, for years, and it was well worth it.

So there is other factors to consider.

Weird middle-earners (50-75K) in Ontario pay less than their peers in Alberta thanks to various deductions and such. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-income-tax-comparison-provinces-flat-tax-1.4673337

My new home (Quebec) costs more than any other province at nearly every category, but oh well.

[rawr1922]

paying taxes is for fucking squares lmao

Ok Wesley Snipes

[Joe Davola]

I usually use TurboTax, but goddamn I lost about an hour of my life this year with their fake loading screen animations.

[brycickle]

This will be the first time in almost 20 years that I will file with only one W2.

[BartHarleyJarvis]

There are still websites that have to offer free federal filing if you’re under a certain income, they’re just ridiculously hard to find (on purpose).

If you start on the irs.gov webpage, they list options there. I used OLT OnLine Taxes and it was free. I don’t think I’ve paid the past couple years. Especially if you just have 1-2 W2s and are under $69k, you should never pay.

[igrindtwinkies]

I've used freetaxusa.com the past 3 years with no issues.  It was completely free and easy for me.  I'm a single male with no kids, so it might suck for people with more complicated taxes.

[Chatbot]

I've used freetaxusa.com the past 3 years with no issues.  It was completely free and easy for me.  I'm a single male with no kids, so it might suck for people with more complicated taxes.

Can vouch for this one. Been using it for a few years and even amended a few returns for past years without hassle. They walk you through every step like other services do e.g. Turbotax

Free Federal filing and $15 for state. 10% off with code "FREETAXUSA10"

[Craig Lutzka]

Anyone have any experience with 1099’s?
It’s my first year getting one and I’m genuinely confused as fuck, I do deliveries for a big company, didn’t even know I’m technically “self-employed”.

[TheLurper]

WealthSimple works well for Canada.

Donation based and better than TurboTax or an accountant even for my semi-convoluted situation.

[BartHarleyJarvis]

Anyone have any experience with 1099’s?
It’s my first year getting one and I’m genuinely confused as fuck, I do deliveries for a big company, didn’t even know I’m technically “self-employed”.

If you saved a chunk of every paycheck you should be ok, otherwise you’re about to be super bummed…

I had a boss pay me as an “independent contractor” without telling me and when I got my 1099 and did my taxes, I hadn’t saved at all and owed a ton.

[Craig Lutzka]

Expand Quote

Anyone have any experience with 1099’s?
It’s my first year getting one and I’m genuinely confused as fuck, I do deliveries for a big company, didn’t even know I’m technically “self-employed”.

[close]

If you saved a chunk of every paycheck you should be ok, otherwise you’re about to be super bummed…

I had a boss pay me as an “independent contractor” without telling me and when I got my 1099 and did my taxes, I hadn’t saved at all and owed a ton.

Haven’t saved shit, I’m about to be screwed it seems.