The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsTurboTax is like Judge Judy.
"You'll never know where I'm going, so don't try to guess, just answer the questions."
Emile
(22,479 posts)was going to be audit if I didn't fork up several thousand dollars. Took that letter and all my tax papers to a tax preparer and he got me a small refund instead.
Midnight Writer
(21,711 posts)I don't know what went wrong, but the IRS didn't like it.
Vinca
(50,236 posts)If they want to be sure people pay their taxes, they should make them so they're easily understood. Same for state tax authorities. I intentionally overpay to one of them so I don't have to fill out the underpayment form. The one time I encountered it I couldn't understand it at all. Finally I did the best I could and figured they'd send me a bill if it was wrong.
dem4decades
(11,269 posts)Since the most recent tax change I don't even reach the amount to use the personal deductions. That may be the only problem, I don't know how close I am to the threshold.
I've used an accountant twice in the past, once because of an inheritance and once because I thought I'd give it a try. Both times I had the software and did it myself for a comparison, they came out the same.
mnhtnbb
(31,373 posts)including when I was married and our taxes were incredibly complicated because of my husband's insistence on running his psychiatric practice out of a home office, renting our garage apartment to a college student, investments, and a Trust which required separate software to file its taxes.
Never audited.
I used an accountant the year I separated from my husband and when I was reviewing his backup paperwork to the form he prepared, I discovered an error in a question about my SS that he had answered incorrectly. I had to fight with him to prepare an adjusted return, but he finally did, and the IRS refunded the $800. that I'd paid, no questions asked.
I went back to using TurboTax.
Croney
(4,656 posts)But it does take you along the backroads and byways on the route to your destination.
mnhtnbb
(31,373 posts)to fill in sections myself, without going through all the questions.