Get more $ back using a tax profesional vs turbo tax?

[highland145]

Turbo tax is great for most returns. My issues are a lot murkier. When the IRS started taking my bank accounts (4 of them) I was glad I had price h20house on my side. I pay from 1-3 k for my returns and am glad to have them. I filed in 7 jurisdictions last yearIRS has returned all accounts and issued a refund with interest.

Heh, you'll get a 1099 for the interest.

 

[TheNinja]

I have always done my own taxes. I even buy/sell stocks, investments, etc. It's really not that hard.

The kicker for me is that I don't itemize deductions most years. I don't own a home so really without mortgage interest I can never really reach above the standard deduction. So I don't worry about all the little things I "could" deduct. To me the difference of a few hundred bucks isn't worth the hassle of saving all my receipts, having to track everything, and then worry about being audited.

I just grab all my income/expense/W-2/1099, etc. and go to town with them using hrblock.com - It takes me about 15-20 hours but it's mostly data entry and gathering forms from banks, investments.

I'm getting like $6k back this year from fed/state combine....guess I didn't do a good job of tax planning. It was an odd year though b/c I switched jobs, got a raise, and got a huge payment from my old job for all unused vacation hours (like 280 hours).

 

[coloumb]

I just gotta wonder what kind of people are mysteriously getting more money back by having their returns rechecked by a "tax pro". Are these the same types of people who skim over details when using tax prep software?

There are some things which you could use to "tweak" the system in your favor for a few more $$$ - but I'd rather not deal with the hassle of possibly being audited later on.

 

[JEDI]

That requires declaring some income and/or business intent using the Schedule C.
The average Joe is not going to try to do such and no decent CPA is going to stick their neck into a noose suggesting such.

A Homeowner might get away with renting out a room in the house. That allows proportionally writing off repairs, utilities and insurance that normally can not be.

why even declare the rent if he's, say, renting out the basement?
would he get more net that way than all the creative deductions he could come up with?

 

[EagleKeeper]

A Homeowner might get away with renting out a room in the house. That allows proportionally writing off repairs, utilities and insurance that normally can not be.

why even declare the rent if he's, say, renting out the basement?
would he get more net that way than all the creative deductions he could come up with?

If you want to write off expenses using the Schedule E; you should plan on showing some income.
The value of the house and the amount of rent need to be determined if ti is of any benefit.

Creativity only works if legit and/or you do not get audited. The more creative you get; the more you stand out! The IRS has a nasty hammer.

 

[velillen]

Did you bother trying to figure out what she "knew". Do you understand what it was? You sign the return - you accept that responsibility. A CPA will throw you under the bus if the IRS asks.

Yep when i went in i'd told her i knew what i could get from turbotax/hrblock so was just seeing if she was "worth it" so to speak. (said it nicer than that though). It was mostly what exactly could be deducted on the purchasing portion of my home. Some things just werent that clear on turbo tax but she did explain it and it made some sense. Just one of those i needed to ask questions so it was either go to hrblock and pay 100 bucks or go to the CPA and pay 10 bucks. Now if she had come back with 1k+ more or something i would have seriously questioned it.

That and it was a double thing since this CPA is a financial advisor as well and i had a lot of questions on setting up another investment account so it was really like 15 minutes of tax and an hour on investing stuff anyways