Who does their own personal tax returns?

[JasoninDenver]

Just curious.

For the last 25 years, I have had my accountant do our personal returns as he was handling accounting for my business and I did not want to mess with it. Since retiring 5 years ago, this now seems a little silly with what I assume are relatively simple returns. However, I hate doing taxes and never thought much about the $700 spent, especially if there is a lower chance of audits.

What say Y'all??

[TheVTCGuy]

If I tried to do my own returns I would be writing this from the penitentiary

[cdmorenot]

Out of sight, out of mind!

[Star Ferry]

Of the half of people who actually pay taxes, most should stick with TurboTax. People who own a business or have complex finances should hire help.

[themast]

I have a relatively straight forward tax profile(a few additional schedules but nothing too complex). I used to do them by hand but a few years ago I started to use TurboTax because I did not want to study each line again every year (you never know what might have changed).
Doing them by hand helped me immensely in understanding how taxation is done. To the point where a few years ago I tried to use a CPA and I had to remind him of a couple of things that he had missed (obviously I never used him again).

[Carguy87]

Years ago I found a gentleman working for a local Jackson Hewitt office who was a CPA but is now semi retired and just works tax season for them because then he has no office overhead and the returns are generally simpler. One of the smartest tax focused people I’ve ever met, and he does them every year for me. If he ever fully retires then I’ll find a good CPA or TurboTax it, but for now the peace of mind is great knowing I have someone very detail oriented doing it for me at a very small fee.

[Krash]

We use TurboTax. One thing that made things easy for us is that we consolidated all our accounts to a single brokerage house.


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[EEpro]

I do all my own stunts.

TurboTax as well.

[Rebel]

I use a CPA.

[beshannon]

Turbo Tax since it has been a product, pencil and calculator before that

[rmagoo57]

I do my own using Turbo Tax. It's almost too simple.

[TheVTCGuy]

Originally Posted by rmagoo57

I do my own using Turbo Tax. It's almost too simple.

I’d find a way to screw it up.

[Starhutch]

Should I actually admit I actually enjoy keeping up with tax legislation changes and doing our own taxes every year? Basically look at it as in some small way trying to pay for my minor in accounting

[HHIslander]

I use a CPA for audit representation. My undergrad was in acct and passed the CPA exam and could easily do it myself. But I’ve been audited twice and it’s worth it to me to just pay for the ease of mind.

[7sins]

Depends if you are w2 or 1099? I work in finance, I do my own taxes. I've spent meaningful amount of money on CPAs and found it not to be worth it. I'm sure more dependent on your CPA but if you are w2 there is not much flexibility in creating entities to reduce your taxable income.

[minute_man]

I used to have my accountant do everything. But he retired a few years ago and my tax stuff is pretty simple to do actually. Besides, everything is online now and the government platform is easy to work with. A 10 minute DIY job for me.
PS: My late grandfather used to do his own stuff till the age of 90, on paper back then. Even though he wasn't required to. Just keepin' the mind sharp

[Beo3]

I have been using the same CPA for 33 years now. I'm not smart enough to do them myself.

My father, at 85 years old still does them with pen and paper and mails them in.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Star Ferry

Of the half of people who actually pay taxes, most should stick with TurboTax. People who own a business or have complex finances should hire help.

I agree.

I had our CA for the business do all our tax returns until a few years ago. After we sold our business, I still used them for 3 years, just to keep the continuity with Rev Can and to make sure there weren’t any surprises.

Now we’ve been doing our own ever since. It’s easy and I actually look forward to doing them

[m j b]

Like the OP, back when I had my own business and had to file corporate returns, my CPA did it. Since I was using him for that anyway, he did my personal returns as well.

Now that I'm just an average Joe with no special circumstances, I use TurboTax and since I can import my brokerage statements and not have to type all of that crap into it any more, it's gotten even easier.

I think CPAs and the like really help out with tax planning, especially when self-employed or business owner. But for the typical W2 corporate employee, I don't see the benefits of paying them all of that money to basically just do data entry. And the time I spend with preparing all of the info, meeting with them etc. makes the time expended a wash.

If they could show me where they save me more than what I pay them to do it, then sure, I'd be happy to have someone do it for me.

[pk552502]

I use turbo tax for federal taxes to make sure I'm thinking through everything. State and local I do myself because those forms are very simple and leverage the federal return. It's nice that Turbo tax keeps a running total of my state refund as I do my federal. That way I can make sure it had matched what Turbo tax said when I complete the state return manually.

[superdog]

Just finished an audit.

One if the most stressful situations I ever had. And it lasted near to 6 months.

My cpa is worth his weight in gold.

[Bstewart]

For W2 employees I never understood paying someone to prepare them for you. It's too simple online.

[Letsgodiving]

Did mine by hand until TurboTax came along. It basically holds your hand through the process and is very easy for relatively simple tax returns.

[Chewbacca]

$700 ??? PWC does mine and Rolex people should be tax exempt or better. My refund for y21 was $2,472,828,811.17

[JasoninDenver]

All-righty.....

I am giving TurboTax a run to see how badly I can screw it up myself.

I m retired and my wife is W-2, so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus, $700 can go towards a new watch. Unfortunately, this one will be an Apple Ultra for working out.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by JasoninDenver

All-righty.....

I am giving TurboTax a run to see how badly I can screw it up myself.

I m retired and my wife is W-2, so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus, $700 can go towards a new watch. Unfortunately, this one will be an Apple Ultra for working out.

Good luck Jason, I think you’ll like it

It’s pretty tough to screw it up and it prompts you for everything and it stores filings for the past 7 years.

We’ve got some capital gains, and dividend income each year, nothing complicated but it really is a breeze.

[JasoninDenver]

Well that was easy!!!

Thanks for all of the recommendations folks. Ya'll are awesome.

[-dustin]

Have used TT since 2012. Up until 2018 or so, I was a 1040EZ guy, so TT was probably a waste of $70, but it helped me sleep at night. Then 1099s came along. The past couple years a 501c3 has come along and that's really complicated things.

[zengineer]

I've always done my own and have used TTax for years. I don't have a business but do have farm income from some inherited property and stock in several small town banks that operate as S-corps in addition to W-2's for my wife and I. My wife works for a large accounting firm. She isn't on the tax side but I get all their internally generated bulletins to stay up on year to year changes. They also provide TT free to employees every year.

[Tricolore66]

CPA, I’m pretty sure prison would not agree with me!