Comments on: Poll: How Do You Prepare Your Taxes?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:55:43 +0000

My corporate taxes are done by a CPA, but my personal ones go through H&R Block Online. I’d love a service that allowed the user to just fill in the appropriate lines on the 1040 and other forms and e-file them (I’ve been doing my own taxes since I was 14, and the stupid “wizards” just annoy me), but no such service exists, and I’m not willing to wait for the snails to deliver paper forms.

By: Adam Zand

Adam Zand — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:27:26 +0000

I’ve been working with an accountant who I know from a previous job. She is great at getting me extensions when I fail to get my paperwork together in time. She still needs to bill me for the last two years as well – come on Sue!

I work with Bruce Huie on getting the word out about VaultStreet. I’m hoping to get my financial record keeping (and life) organized online. Maybe I won’t need the extension this year!

By: Bruce Huie

Bruce Huie — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:27:46 +0000

I just want to completely go paperless at tax prep season without the current burden of a web login for a bank or brokerage, navigate to the statements page at my financial institutions and download documents – one at a time. I’ve got better things to do then download documents, think about file names and categorize the downloaded documents on my PC hard drive. This makes no sense to me. Give me a convenient way to do this, communicate with my tax accountant located in Boston and I live in San Francisco and you’ve got my attention.

One service just recently launched is VaultStreet – http://www.vaultstreet.com. It connects to multiple financial institutions in banking and brokerage industries. Then, it allows me to share documents with my tax accountant. It takes me too long … not a good use of my time. I like it when someone else does this for me.

By: Jason Simon

Jason Simon — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:22:51 +0000

My cousin helps me out with taxes, but there certainly are a lot of free or almost free options nowadays.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:06:35 +0000

For the past couple years, I used to do taxes by myself until I started a LLC, bought a house, etc. I just took too muchof my time, so I decided to just get an accountant. I think it’s well worth the money!

By: fishing

fishing — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:55:38 +0000

My accountant saves me a lot of time.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:52:24 +0000

Mom’s a CPA, and she does my taxes for free, so having her do my taxes is a no-brainer

By: Lily

Lily — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:03:46 +0000

I tried TaxCut Online, Tango, and TurboTax this year. My favorite is actually TurboTax, so that’s how I’ll be filing. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without you, so thanks!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:26:08 +0000

That is a good point, FM. Most of our significant tax/income changes came at the end of 2007, so it was already too late to really get much advice from an accountant for the 07 tax year, but I can already see many areas right now that I’d like to have some additional advice on for 2008.

But you’re right, getting the information ahead of time and being able to plan for and make adjustments before you prepare your return can be well worth the added cost, and then some.

By: Fiscal Musings

Fiscal Musings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:23:17 +0000

I’ve used a CPA for the last two years and have been quite satisfied. I’m sure I could do the actual return myself with some tax prep software, but it’s being able to ask all the questions I want and get specific advice throughout the year that’s invaluable. It’s better to find out the best way to handle some situation at the time rather than months later during tax season.