(also, Happy First Day of Spring to you!)
My web host in CA had a power outage last night, which fried the machine that serves my blog AND the backup machine. So, they had to bring in a new server, and shortly after they got everything back up, the power went out again and they had to start the process all over.
So, my blog’s been down pretty much since yesterday evening, which means I haven’t exactly had the opportunity to write a blog post.
On the upside (you know how I love those!), I used the extra time to finish up my taxes for this year. They’re done and filed. Yay!!
(I use Turbo Tax to do mine.)
The bummer is that this year, we ended up owing, but happily, it wasn’t enough to cause us to owe any underpayment penalties.
And another fortunate thing is that since I expected to owe something, I set aside money to pay for the taxes, and after paying what we owe, I still have $4000 left.
It’s kind of like a homemade refund, I think. 😉
My taxes are a little too complicated to qualify for this, but Turbo Tax does offer a free federal edition for people who just need a 1040 EZ.
Because all of my income is self-employment income, I need to use the deluxe version, but even that is only $29.99. They do offer a Home and Business version for $74.99, but really, the Deluxe has always been fine for me, probably because I don’t have employees and such.
I’ve been using Turbo Tax for 15 years now, and I highly recommend it. It’s super easy to use because it changes the confusing IRS language into plain English and I honestly think pretty much anyone can use Turbo Tax unless they’ve got a really complicated taxing situation.
Getting our taxes finished has been on my to-do list for somewhere around two months now, so I am super-duper happy to have it finally checked off!
Even if it did take a blog outage. 😉
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Do you do your taxes yourself, or do you hire someone?
P.S. Turbo Tax doesn’t pay me to write about them, and they don’t even give me a complimentary copy of their software. I paid for my federal and state returns out of my own bank account. 😉
Russell Matthews
Thursday 28th of March 2013
I pay for corporate taxes however, I like to do my own. I enjoy the process of being thorough when it comes to my money and paying close attention throughout the year. Saving copies of anything and everything I may need. Strong organizational skills can make this tedious process quite easy!
Joyce
Friday 22nd of March 2013
I have used Turbo tax for 3 years now and I LOVE it!!! It is easy. I pay the extra to get the state taxes done too.
Lynsey
Thursday 21st of March 2013
My hubby and I did our own taxes up until they became way to complicated and painful. We now go to H&R block where our tax dude (as we call him) is and have him prepare them for us. It's worth an hour of our time and the $$$ to us to watch as they get prepared then sent off. Especially this years tax return it was pretty nasty and we thought for sure we'd owe, after it was all said and done though, we got a nice little return. =D As for what we are going to do with said return, we put the majority of it in savings, put aside some money into the baby fund (first child is due in July and we are waiting until after the baby shower to purchase stuff) and then my husband I each picked an item to purchase. Hubby bought a small surround sound for the living room and I bought myself a gas grill, no more charcoal and lighter fluid for this girl!
Dianna
Thursday 21st of March 2013
I also use Turbo Tax, and have for quite a few years. Prior to that I did them myself. This year I kept hearing that H & R Block would get you more, so I did them both side by side. Turbo Tax got me quite a bit more, but not only that, I was more impressed by the in depth questions that are asked when filling out your refund. I did not find H & R Block to be as in depth.
We got back on our federal, but state showed we would owe $800, so I didn't file them thru Turbo Tax, I am going to file them the old fashioned way after I see if I can save a little money with some other deductions.
Molly
Wednesday 20th of March 2013
We have an accountant. This was after way too many years of honest mistakes, penalties, and nasty letters from the IRS. We weren't trying to cheat, but the tax code is really confusing. Our accountant takes care of these problems for us now. Whew.