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Got taxes done; 1st half sent out

February 12th, 2008 at 04:53 pm

I filled out all our tax forms and put AS's in the mail. When we get her federal refund, I'll send out mine and NT's. Same with state. This way, no pain.

Since none of us qualified for any of the free filing sites I tried (H&R's TaxCut pissed me off by having me go through the whole thing before telling me whoops, AS wasn't eligible after all), I'm doing hard copy for all. It's going to cost me about $1.50 total (for postage).

I can't tell if I'm unusually stingy in this area but as long as our taxes are figure-outable without a professional (I don't count my one year of H&R Block training as making me a professional), I'm not going to pay to e-file. They want me to e-file; it saves them work--fine! Then make it free (or at least $1.50 or less) and I'll gladly do it. I hate having to pay anything for tax prep.

As for changing my withholding so I don't owe next year, I decided to do that only AFTER I've saved up sufficient money for the England trip. I can withhold more in the second half of the year to make up for not withholding enough in the first half.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Got taxes done; 1st half sent out”

  1. Caoineag Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 06:19 pm 1202840352
    1202840352

    I am pretty stingy in this area too but didn't mind paying $13 for my federal and state for tax act. If you want to efile for free, check and make sure next year that your state doesn't have a place to do it. In Colorado, I can efile for free with the state itself and I think taxact has the federal efile for free if you have a simple enough return. Worth checking out at least.

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 06:34 pm 1202841263
    1202841263

    I don't think our taxes were simple enough to qualify this year--AS had self-employment income to report and claimed a Lifetime Learning credit. NT and I earned over $60K together, and we itemized deductions.

    This year AS's income will probably stay fairly low and she probably won't pay any tuition, just student loan interest. So maybe next time I can e-file hers for free! Mine and NT's income is going to be higher so we won't be able to.

    I think eventually the governments will offer free e-filing for all, because it's so much more convenient for them. I'm holding out for that. (Of course, the other road they could go is making you pay a penalty for paper filing--forcing you to pay for e-file. Yeah, that's probably the more likely route they'll take.)

  3. Caoineag Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 07:16 pm 1202843771
    1202843771

    Umm yeah, AS's would qualify but you would have to use the deluxe form like I did. Not because of income, but because of the special scenarios (TaxAct's isn't income based, only complexity based).

    I can definitely see the fed charging for paper filing and am surprised that they haven't yet. My big issue is that I hate sending anything by mail, I am really lazy when it comes to that. I am quite obviously a product of the computer age, lol.

  4. skydivingchic Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 08:13 pm 1202847239
    1202847239

    I'm stingy about the e-file thing, too. There is no way I'm paying $13 or whatever it is to e-file when that's what they want me to do! As you said, it saves them work. They should be charging to send it in by mail, not the other way around.

  5. marjorie Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 10:13 pm 1202854388
    1202854388

    It not only saves them work, but most programs will reject being sent with the most obvious errors. Even about a decade ago when I spent 5 years doing taxes part time for one of major players the error rate was unde 2% using some of the early efile systems.

  6. Jen Says:
    February 14th, 2008 at 02:23 pm 1202999021
    1202999021

    If you have insurance with State Farm you can use Turbo Tax free and I think that includes free eFile. Log on to your State Farm account and on the left hand side you will see a link. Vanguard offers Turbo Tax for free or at a discounted rate depending on how much you have invested with them. Also, many states let you eFile for free.

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