Tax Season

Well, as another tax season comes to a close, I have not waited as long as I normally do to complete my taxes but I did try something new this year.

I have always decided it was worth my money to have taxes done by H&R Block. Well this year, I received quite a bit of encouragement from numerous people that I could do my taxes. So, today I gathered my paperwork, computer, pen, paper and got started. I got two different recommendations on tax sites to use. One was completetax.com and of course Turbo Tax. Well I decided to start with completetax.com. After all my information was added and the result was a deficit for both state and federal, I decided to give Turbo Tax a try. This site was a bit friendlier and easier to understand. I did everything I was suppose to do and the result was a bit more to my liking. I had a federal rebate but for some reason I owed the state almost 3 times more than last year. I went back and double checked my work and still owed the good old state of MN quite a bit of money. I became easily frustrated and after about 3 hours it was time for a break. Out of frustration I posted a new Facebook status and within a few minutes got a call from my good friend Chris. He offered some help and back to work I went. I checked my work and turned out I had left out a "0" from my W2 for state taxes. Boy that made a big difference and soon my state deficit was reduced by a third and back to what I had hoped it would be when I first began. The fee for me to do it online Turbo Tax was also about a third of what my H&R Block bill was last year. I am quite happy with this accomplishment and will tackle this project again next year. Boy it is sure fun to grow up and have more and more responsibility. But, for a first timer I would definitely recommend Turbo Tax. Feel free to post any questions you may have and I bet I might be able to help.