Why I Love TurboTax | brokeGIRLrich
In the last 5 years, I’ve used TurboTax to file my taxes every year except one (and let’s be real here, not too many people join the circus and suddenly have 30 states worth of W-2s making them regret every career decision they made in their life that led them to that point).
Most people have a job or two and live in the same state, or maybe move once, over the course of a year.
But we’re not most people, are we hustlers? We bring home the bacon any way we can and sometimes that creates an unpleasant situation come tax time as you try to sort through not only a pile of W-2s but now several 1099s as well.
This year, I was curious to see how well my W-2s, pile of 1099s and TurboTax were going to mesh. I was resigned to the fact that my days of using the free Federal tax software were over.
And here’s how it went:
2 hours of my time and $104 later, my taxes are filed AND I got a decent sized refund for the first time in several years.
I get that there are folks out there who are super anti-refund, because yes, it is a free government loan, but to be honest, my savings account makes so little interest, I would’ve made about $3 on that money. Instead, since I set my W-2 settings a little high, so that they take a little extra out of my checks, it largely offset my 1099 work.
At the end of the day, it’s really just another one of those examples of how personal finance is personal, and you’ve got to do what feels right for you.
And at the end of this experience, I still love TurboTax. They helped me figure out which expenses I could deduct, which took a huge chunk out of my 1099 income (turns out it was a great year to buy a Macbook) and helped me figure out how to file 1099s for both my freelance blogging and stage management so they are correctly accounted for.
Finally, TurboTax’s double checking software found me an extra tax credit I was totally unaware of – apparently if you make very little and still contribute to your retirement funds, even if they are before tax like Roth, you get a tax credit, so that was exciting.
I love Turbo Tax, too. I actually have a 5 year accounting degree and Turbo Tax is still one of the best programs I have used. I actually got my last piece of tax documents I needed this morning so I will be working on my taxes this afternoon!
Elise @ Uphill To Easy Street recently posted…How Digit Saved Me $600.45
I’m glad to hear you have an accounting degree and still think TurboTax is awesome! 🙂
We use turbo tax too. Our taxes are not over complicated and I find turbo tax to have everything we need.
Brian @DebtDiscipline recently posted…How I Survived a Layoff
I love it too. It’s seriously SO easy!!
Heather @ Simply Save recently posted…My Morning Routine
I’ve used an accountant my entire adult life, but am considering doing them myself next year, after I’ve finally wrapped up my small business. It’s good to hear that Turbo Tax can simplify lots of different payments and expenses.
Amy @ DebtGal recently posted…I’ve Fallen in Love with Personal Capital
Definitely – I feel super overwhelmed at tax time, but every year, TurboTax has made it clear to me (unless you’re doing returns for a large number of states – you can still use TurboTax but it gets very pricey).
Definitely another thumbs up from Turbotax over here! Plus, I went through Ebates and now am getting about $7 back in addition to getting a discount on using it! I know some banks/credit unions also offer discounts if you use TurboTax via a link on their websites, so that’s also something to investigate (for those who haven’t already finished!).
I’m just waiting on my tax refund now. 🙂
Ms. Mintly @ MintlyBlog recently posted…January 2016 Recap
Ack! I totally forgot to check eBates!! Thanks for the reminder!
I used Turbo Tax for the first time this year and I just think about how much money I saved rather, than to go to H&R Block like we have for the past couple of years. They do make the process quite simple 🙂
Miranda recently posted…Weekly Digest #1
I use TaxAct, but I’ve used Turbo Tax in the past. Both are awesome — especially since regular 1040s are usually free. Failing that, there’s cash back sites.
Tax software has been a huge help in the headache of taxes. I used to try to do them by hand. I’d inevitably miss something a few times, so our poor printer would be burning through ink and paper as I fixed, reprinted, fixed again… Ugh.
Abigail @ipickuppennies recently posted…9 money lessons from the Deadpool movie
For our taxes, I’ve found that using an online tax service, usually H&R, has been enough. However, I’m antsy to see how it will work out next year when adding freelancing to the mix. We’ve never had enough expenses to do individual itemization so we do the standard. I really need to get to work on that this week…this is the latest I’ve ever held off. We usually have ours done by now!
Latoya @ Femme Frugality recently posted…How To Responsibly Build Credit
The 1099s were the first time I ever needed to itemize and I wasn’t 100% prepared. I definitely paid more on them than I had to because of my lame receipt tracking methods.
I just finished my taxes on Monday using Turbo Tax. I love that it’s so easy, and there help section is actually helpful!
Michelle recently posted…Budgeting 101: Creating a Budget
I use TaxAct which is a lot like Turbo Tax except that you can do your Federal taxes free and pay for the state return (unless you want to do it yourself, which I do, using the info from my federal return)/
RAnn recently posted…My Peer Lending Accounts: February 2016
I used TaxAct this year. TurboTax is great & fool-proof but it was going to cost an extra $45 to use. TaxAct required some more manual inputs & correcting errors than TT but if money isn’t an issue for filing taxes I highly recommend TT because it is the easiest tax software to use. Especially if you can import most of your important documents.
Josh recently posted…5 Ways Craigslist Saved Us $4,000 On Our Home Construction!