I bought a copy of Turbo Tax and I’ve been playing around with it today. Seemed to me rather than paying a tax guy $150 to plug my numbers into some software I could plug them in myself. When I compare it to last year’s form prepared by a professional, I have no obvious holes or things grossly out of line.
I sure don’t like the results, though.
ummm… is it possible the tax guy knew of some “secret deduction” that would have made the difference? Did you miss a kid credit or other deduction? How about writing off all or part of your new computer for work?
BTW, Linky – you are far more brave about this than I. I’ve paid somebody to do it since 1985 because it’s the only thing I will admit I can’t do. I don’t get it, I don’t want to get it, it makes my brain hurt even thinking about it. I also like to think that if I ever do get hauled in for an audit, that person I paid to do my taxes will be sitting there next to me shaking in his shoes, too. Misery loves company and all that. 😉
We’ve used Turbo Tax for a long time and have been quite happy with it. Sometimes I mess with the numbers and play “what if” and the results of that sort of effort bring up other suggestions by the end of the program that have proven useful. For $20 how can you go wrong?
Believe me, new computer was one of the things I thought of, but the actual purchase was in January 2005. 🙁
You can also deduct the cost of the Turbo Tax software..all $19.95 of it for the 2005 tax year.
So, that added with your new computer costs should just bring you a windfall, huh???