I hate doing taxes.

[mrssavy42112]

Yep, this is why I stopped doing it myself. Last year I went to H&R Block, thinking it was an upgrade. Well, this year I went to an independent CPA referred to me by another person in my field & apparently the guy jacked it up pretty bad.

[crazygame]

I stopped doing my own a few years ago too. It just never seemed to come out right. Good luck!

[Deleted]

I feel you! Given that I lived in WI, VA, and DC during 2012, but H only lived in WI, ours are a total mess. We owe 2 jurisdictions and are getting a refund from 2 and have ridiculous amounts of e-filing charges since we have 4 returns to file. Grrr!

[holly116]

Apr 4, 2013 13:16:59 GMT -5 mrssavy42112 said:

Yep, this is why I stopped doing it myself. Last year I went to H&R Block, thinking it was an upgrade. Well, this year I went to an independent CPA referred to me by another person in my field & apparently the guy jacked it up pretty bad.

My mom worked at H&R Block for years during tax season. I love my mom, but there is no way in hell I'd ever ask for her advice with anything to do with finances.

[M]

We filed an extension for the first time ever on Monday haha.  We just put off getting everything together and now our accountant can't get it done in time.

[holly116]

Has there been any sort of consensus on tax programs this year? I've always used Turbo Tax, but all these stories scare me. This is the first year I haven't had our taxes done by the end of February and I really need to get on it this weekend.

[KaraOrNot]

With a discrepancy, I would take them to a pro.

[SJ]

Does it have something to do with SE tax from the Schedule C?

This is really mystifying. I have never used TaxAct, but used TaxSlayer and TurboTax before we hired a CPA. I still use TurboTax for many friends/family members.

[sicilygirl]

Apr 4, 2013 13:11:28 GMT -5 swizz said:

TurboTax says I owe $1700 in federal, $150 in VA state, and $350 in MD state. The MD state is wrong, I definitely don't owe that.

So I put all our info into TaxAct. They say I owe no MD, $350 to VA state, and $2400 for federal.

I put them next to each other line by line and they SAY THE SAME THING with the exception of the amount we owe.

WTF.

ETA: TaxAct has a line item for "other taxes" that lists the discrepancy amount, but TurboTax doesn't.

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.  There is no possible way everything else could be the same, but you owe different amounts (obviously you already know that).  You could take your taxable income (the same on both, right?) and then use the IRS tax tables to see what your real tax liability should be.  Hopefully it will equal one of your two numbers.  I don't really know what else to suggest.

[calico]

Weird. Double check your inputs to each program and if that doesn't fix the issue, I'd go see a pro.

[LoveTrains]

Apr 4, 2013 13:32:26 GMT -5 sicilygirl said:

Apr 4, 2013 13:11:28 GMT -5 swizz said:

TurboTax says I owe $1700 in federal, $150 in VA state, and $350 in MD state. The MD state is wrong, I definitely don't owe that.

So I put all our info into TaxAct. They say I owe no MD, $350 to VA state, and $2400 for federal.

I put them next to each other line by line and they SAY THE SAME THING with the exception of the amount we owe.

WTF.

ETA: TaxAct has a line item for "other taxes" that lists the discrepancy amount, but TurboTax doesn't.

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.  There is no possible way everything else could be the same, but you owe different amounts (obviously you already know that).  You could take your taxable income (the same on both, right?) and then use the IRS tax tables to see what your real tax liability should be.  Hopefully it will equal one of your two numbers.  I don't really know what else to suggest.

Yes, definitely do this. This happened to me one year - I verified that all the information on the actual 1040 forms was the same. I just looked at my number for AGI or MAGI and then verified what the tax owed should be on the tax tables. It turns out that H&R Block software was WRONG and had the wrong tax tables for my income. 

[LoveTrains]

Apr 4, 2013 13:38:46 GMT -5 swizz said:

Oh for fuck's sake.

I went in to look and it didn't seem like DH's SE stuff was actually put into TurboTax.

NOW IT SAYS WE OWE $4000! HE ONLY MADE $6400!

Yeah but it is saying you owe $4000 total - so subtract out the $1700 you would have owed before and it is saying you owe $1300 from the additional $6400 income - which is only 20% so honestly not that bad. That is paying your portion of FICA, the self employment taxes, and federal tax liability. 

[LoveTrains]

Apr 4, 2013 14:19:11 GMT -5 swizz said:

Apr 4, 2013 14:10:45 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Yeah but it is saying you owe $4000 total - so subtract out the $1700 you would have owed before and it is saying you owe $1300 from the additional $6400 income - which is only 20% so honestly not that bad. That is paying your portion of FICA, the self employment taxes, and federal tax liability. 

But before I put any of his SE stuff in, it says we owe around $200, which is what it was the year we didn't have any SE income and roughly similar salaries.

Ouch that is craptastic. I should add that I got like $800 last year for proctoring the SATs - and it basically cut my refund by $500 once I put it on the schedule C - so I feel your pain. That is kind of a similar proportion to yours. Basically you get screwed on self employment income because you have to pay 14% (or more maybe?) for FICA on top of whaterver marginal rate you are at. So it's really easy to hit 40% or more in terms of taxes on self employment income.

Do you have any more deductions you can take on the schedule C?

[UnderProtest]

For the state tax discrepancy, did you owe state taxes last year when you filed? Turbo tax could be automatically rolling that over.

For other taxes, could it be AMT?

[hbomdiggity]

I'm not saying its right, but SE will def fuck you.

I would see a professional to make sure you are deducting everything possible. And to know how to plan ahead for 2013.