personal tax filing-yourself or delegate?

[Cataboo]

Having had many friends that worked at the IMF & world bank... They're all pretty clear on the tax law - the foreign nationals don't pay taxes, and the US citizens do pay taxes - and the US citizens get paid more to compensate for the fact that they have to pay taxes, so that they're getting equal net pay as their colleagues. I don't see how this would be a surprise to Geitner while working there, because even I know all about how the US tax laws apply to IMF people... but maybe that's because everyone I know from there is an economist and likes to tell people in excruciating detail about monetary things.

Now, turbo tax may not have been set up completely for US citizens getting payments from international organizations, because it's a rare case... however, if I'm going through all my tax paperwork when I'm working with turbo tax, and there's a spare piece of paper that I haven't entered... I don't just neglect to enter it just because turbo tax didn't specifically ask me a question that made me think, okay let's put that in... I start using the help and the search features on the software to figure out where that is supposed to go... If that doesn't illuminate things for me, then I get on the IRS's website and read up on it. I also pay attention to the status bar telling me how much of a refund or how much I'm paying, and I think about what I'm entering to make sure everything makes sense...

There are sometimes when I start down a question path in turbo tax, then realize, oh, this doesn't apply, and then cancel it and later figure out that turbo tax didn't actually delete that form, and I've got to go through and do it manually or all the tax calculations are screwed up... But I've caught it doing that several times.

I think when using turbo tax, you've got to be fairly vigilant about what you're doign, but you should be doing that anyways because you're doing taxes.

[VeloVT]

I would point out that the IRS website is, surprisingly, excellent, informative and user-friendly.

That said, I send my docs to my parents' accountant .

[shootingstar]

Having had many friends that worked at the IMF & world bank... They're all pretty clear on the tax law - the foreign nationals don't pay taxes, and the US citizens do pay taxes - and the US citizens get paid more to compensate for the fact that they have to pay taxes, so that they're getting equal net pay as their colleagues. I don't see how this would be a surprise to Geitner while working there, because even I know all about how the US tax laws apply to IMF people... but maybe that's because everyone I know from there is an economist and likes to tell people in excruciating detail about monetary things.

Now, turbo tax may not have been set up completely for US citizens getting payments from international organizations, because it's a rare case... however, if I'm going through all my tax paperwork when I'm working with turbo tax, and there's a spare piece of paper that I haven't entered... I don't just neglect to enter it just because turbo tax didn't specifically ask me a question that made me think, okay let's put that in... I start using the help and the search features on the software to figure out where that is supposed to go... If that doesn't illuminate things for me, then I get on the IRS's website and read up on it. I also pay attention to the status bar telling me how much of a refund or how much I'm paying, and I think about what I'm entering to make sure everything makes sense...

There are sometimes when I start down a question path in turbo tax, then realize, oh, this doesn't apply, and then cancel it and later figure out that turbo tax didn't actually delete that form, and I've got to go through and do it manually or all the tax calculations are screwed up... But I've caught it doing that several times.

I think when using turbo tax, you've got to be fairly vigilant about what you're doign, but you should be doing that anyways because you're doing taxes.

Catriona you're not an accountant, but maybe you're a bit addicted to this tax filing stuff or you really do get treated well to dinners by others...take it as a compliment.

[ilima]

I do them myself & mail in the return. I refuse to pay to submit electronically.

Mine are pretty darn simple, but I will not hesitate to go to a tax preparer when I think it's warranted.

[Cataboo]

Catriona you're not an accountant, but maybe you're a bit addicted to this tax filing stuff or you really do get treated well to dinners by others...take it as a compliment.

Blech, if I'm going to be doing people's tax returns, I don't want to be responsible if they go to jail for tax evasion!

It's really not all that much work for the majority of people if I tell them what I need and they have all that organized ahead of time, then I just sit down for an hour or half an hour and plug in all their numbers. Turbo tax autoupdates on the previous years data, so it pretty much already knows what to ask for if nothing's changed. IF they do it with me one year, they usually learn what I want for next year. So it takes a little longer the first year, not a huge deal the years after that.

My Mom's always terribly generous with me anyways, so it's not a big deal to do her taxes even if hers are probably the hardest... Her friends'll usually give me some money if I've done their taxes, I try to refuse, they insist, we go back & forth and I usually end up taking it. My baby brother's my baby brother (I'm usually spoiling him), and my sister alternates between giving me money or thinking it's a family privilege.