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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by braisler
On the positive, happy side. After I decided that I was going to have to actually mail in my federal and state returns, I sat down and reviewed the printed out returns in preparation for signing them. I found that the program had itemized deductions on my state return, but used the standard deduction on my federal return. I knew that was a mistake because we have a lot of mortgage interest, enough that amounts to more than the standard deduction just based on the mortgage interest alone. I went back and checked, found and fixed the error, and re-printed the federal return... to the tune of a $1300 increase in the amount I'm getting back.
So yeah, I didn't get the ease and speed of e-file, but I'm getting a good bit more money back than I thought I was. Enough to start my deck re-finishing project.
For those of you who don't do your own taxes, why don't you? Are you lazy about it? Don't understand the tax code? Afraid of making mistakes and getting in trouble? I've always done my own taxes since I was old enough to work and earn money for myself. The longest it has ever taken me was 45 minutes to an hour once I had all the paperwork together. I guess if I started working as an independent contractor, or owning multiple rental properties, then I might need to hire an accountant for my taxes. Until then, I'll likely stick with doing them myself.
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I used to do my own taxes, even when I had regular employment and 1099s. It just got too complicated. For example, last year I was hit with AMT and couldn't deduct the normal $8,000 depreciation of my first rental property, but was able to take a different deduction elsewhere. I would not have known about that elsewhere.
Once I got into investment properties that are in a different state and an S corp it made better sense to hire someone as the complexity of the tax codes changing from year to year, I find my time better spent learning other things to grow my money and investments.
The cost of my accountant far exceeds the amount extra I net if I had done it myself. I used to do side by side comparos but no longer do so because of the complexity.
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