H&R Block sucks, what do you use?

hmp1

We had an appointment Friday night at H&R Block. It was the first time we ever paid someone to do our taxes because DH's stepdad is a CPA and always did them for us. Since we moved we wanted them done here. Holy crap, it was $300 on top of what we had to pay the government (first year we had to pay ). It didn't seem very difficult to me and I told DH we should do them ourselves next year with a program like Turbo Tax.

What do you use and what did it cost to prepare?

angelphish2010

We use Turbo Tax. Its very easy to use. Especially if you are going off of your W2's.

I can't remember the price but I know its way cheaper than H&R Block.

historychick79

We use Turbo Tax. Both our credit union and State Farm insurance offer it to clients, so we don't pay for it.

inthewater

If you have simple stuff - I say Turbo Tax. Simple stuff, in my defination, is being a normal employee (vs self employed/consultant), you don't directly employ someone, etc. I'm not a landlord, but I don't know how difficult it would be if you also rented a property to someone to do it yourself on Turbo Tax.

 In our situation though - I work for a company, we own some stock, etc., Turbo tax works great for us - and you can get it on sale at Costco every year

hterry85

We also use turbo tax. I work from home so have a few extras to add from that, but it still only takes me an hour or two from start to finish. (And only costs $30 to file state, federal is free if you use the basic)

hmp1

historychick79:

We use Turbo Tax. Both our credit union and State Farm insurance offer it to clients, so we don't pay for it.

Say what??? We have State Farm. I am kicking myself for letting DH handle this, I doubt he did any research. I'm doing it next year.

historychick79

hmp&mrj:

historychick79:

We use Turbo Tax. Both our credit union and State Farm insurance offer it to clients, so we don't pay for it.

Say what??? We have State Farm. I am kicking myself for letting DH handle this, I doubt he did any research. I'm doing it next year.

Yup, there's a link on the State Farm website once you log into your State Farm account. You just need to log in via State Farm's link and create your Turbo Tax account that way. The price can be tied to which version you use, but our taxes are really basic so I don't feel the need for the deluxe edition.

hmp1

hterry85:

We also use turbo tax. I work from home so have a few extras to add from that, but it still only takes me an hour or two from start to finish. (And only costs $30 to file state, federal is free if you use the basic)

I work from home now and that was my biggest concern about doing it myself. But because my company reimburses me for so much, I didn't meet the almost $1300 minimum expense.

tracey4228

Turbo Tax. $80 for the software, $30 for the state filing. You get to deduct the software cost when you itemize so it's really only the state filing.

FrickandFrack

This is the first year we switched from H&R Block to Turbo Tax and I loved it.

MrsWindyCity

We use a CPA. It is sort of expensive but he finds so much crap I would  not find, and saves me time, so it's worth the cost to me. If we didn't use him, I'd probably do it myself because H&R Block and those kinds of people don't really know what they are talking about - anyone can get a job doing that, myself included, so I'd save myself the money.

seahorse102410

If you can ask around for a younger CPA looking for clients I've heard that is the way to go.  In the past though I have used TaxAct.com

MrsWindyCity

GhostMonkey:

MrsWindyCity:

We use a CPA. It is sort of expensive but he finds so much crap I would  not find, and saves me time, so it's worth the cost to me. If we didn't use him, I'd probably do it myself because H&R Block and those kinds of people don't really know what they are talking about - anyone can get a job doing that, myself included, so I'd save myself the money.

Actually HUR Block will not hire you if you have any accounting education. I tried. They don't want people who know what they are doing- they just want someone who will run the program.

lol, awesome. 

Wufroggy79

We do a local guy, and he charges us around $150.   

lrn327

Private CPA and definitely less than $300 (around $200?).

ColesMommy0606

We use Turbo Tax and have for the past 3 years. The version I picked up this year was about $50. Next year I'll need to get the top level one because I work from home. I have been really happy with it and used H&R block only once and paid about $300 as well (we have a lot of forms). My parents use an accountant (not a CPA but a guy that pretty much does bookkeeping and simple taxes) and he's always charged them $50-75. They've been using him for over 15 years so I think going with a new CPA with a small client base is also an option because they often offer a lower rate. 

melody921

We used to use Turbo Tax, but then I got into direct sales as a side job, and we bought a house, and it just was starting to look too complicated. We used a local accountant. He charged us $310, but we got $1900 back. Totally worth it in my mind. There were a lot of things we would have missed if we'd done it on our own.

jlthompson19

I use Tax Act and it was $13.95 for both Fed and State, itemized.

ABizzity

We use Turbo Tax.  We dont qualify for free Fed but it was only like $85 to file both Fed and State returns. 

Kitiara5512

We went online and did the 29.95 Turbo Tax version. That included doing all the stuff regarding my mutual funds and 401K and my school loans. It was a little more than we would have gotten last year before paying Jackson Hewitt.

You know how if you have a good experience you tell one person but if its a bad experience you tell 11 people? Wanna be my 11? Jackson Hewitt failed to send out our taxes and we would not have found out if we had not gone in two days before the deadline to find out why we didnt have our money yet. Then they told DH that they could not get his check to our next local office since the one at our corner was closed. Then the manager for the location they wanted us to go to lied and said she was the general regional manager for the whole area, right after H had gotten done complaining to their main office - he of course got a call from the actual RM and we got to pick up our check at the office that didnt have us drive 50 minutes each way, but it was still over all two months later than it should have been and way too much work for the amount of money we paid them.

We will never go back to using tax preparers again. TurboTax FTW.

Kitiara5512

MrsWindyCity:

GhostMonkey:

MrsWindyCity:

We use a CPA. It is sort of expensive but he finds so much crap I would  not find, and saves me time, so it's worth the cost to me. If we didn't use him, I'd probably do it myself because H&R Block and those kinds of people don't really know what they are talking about - anyone can get a job doing that, myself included, so I'd save myself the money.

Actually HUR Block will not hire you if you have any accounting education. I tried. They don't want people who know what they are doing- they just want someone who will run the program.

lol, awesome. 

Based on the idiots at Jackson Hewitt that had less tax knowledge than I do (I had to tell the dumbfruck how to enter some stuff in) I would completely agree.