<p>DocT, I was wondering the same thing. The only K1s I have are for things that trade like stocks but are actually partnerships, like KFN and UNG. I am so annoyed at having to input all the K1 information and not seeing the connection between those numbers and my investment I am going to sell those positions and not buy that type of thing again. KFN; I bought it, it pays a nice dividend but now I have to deal with all this other crap. No thanks.</p>
<p>Well…if you invested a certain amount in the company and the k1 says you invested less…it isn’t hard to read that the k1 is incorrect. :)</p>
<p>perhaps. I’ve got k1’s from kmp. I tried putting the info into turbotax and was totally confused on 13J’s which on the statement say STMT and then you have a bunch of cr** on the next page with intangible drilling costs etc. Finally I was able to go to the KMP website and read it in as a txf file so that problem was taken care of but I still don’t have a clue whether any of what went in makes any sense.</p>
<p>The benefits of companies that issue K1s is that you get to write off depreciation so that you can potentially make a nice profit and not have to pay any taxes on it (coolest thing that I’ve ever seen). The downside is the paperwork - it can tie you in knots figuring out how to do it or the nightmare of an incorrect return from a foreign company that doesn’t understand US accounting all that well. So I don’t do them anymore either unless it’s by accident.</p>
<p>If you buy Turbo Tax, you can load it on to your computer to keep forever, and also efile for free. At least the federal. I can do up to five. They charge to efile Michigan, but I can print that out and mail it in. I prefer it because it keeps track of everything and I don’t have to reenter the information the following year including all those carry overs.</p>
<p>I agree on using the same product year-after-year.</p>
<p>States are annoyed that so many people use tax software to do their returns and then file paper returns and are trying to get the tax software companies to allow e-filing for free but then how do they make money? It seems to me that the Feds and States should allow a credit for tax software.</p>
<p>Whew, I am done with taxes. Just clicked it. It is getting harder to keep track of everything. This year I treated myself to efiling both state and federal returns.</p>
<p>The k1 I am talking about is from a private company. The company isn’t publicly traded. It is a llc. I am a limited partner. Maybe there are 10 limited partners. Getting the amount of my investment correct is not difficult. Yet it is wrong. So my write off because the investment is understated and is worthless is too low. The managing partner was incompetent.</p>
<p>I also have a k1 from a public company. I day traded QRE. I want to avoid investing or day trading these partnerships in the future because the k1s are a pain.</p>
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I’m surprised you qualified for the education credits.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I did or not - you may be correct there. I didn’t bother running it through.</p>
<p>You can deduct the cost of tax software subject to the 2% limit. I’m not sure I see a reason for the government to further subsidize that private business. </p>
<p>I’ve been blown away by the advances in online filing. A few years to do your own federal return on line required you have a plain vanilla return and use this limited set of clunky software. It may have been last year they let you do “online fillable forms” so you can fill out any form, have them calculate and fill out the basics for you, etc. This year they included more links so if you do Schedule E, for example, and you get to say depreciation, there’s a box you check and up pops the form for that. Much better each year.</p>
<p>MA not only wants you to efile but they save all your basic information so you only need to review: from names, ss#'s, dependents to W-2 employer ID #'s. And they will ask you questions about credits you may be eligible for. The whole thing too maybe 20 minutes. (I understand they don’t offer this for out-of-state but I can see why that’s not a priority and even why they wouldn’t necessarily want to encourage easier out migration.) </p>
<p>Not long ago filing meant going through check registers and making lists and photocopying forms at the library and going to a copy center and filling out certified mail forms and standing in line. Now it’s a click. </p>
<p>Other western countries fill out your taxes for you. You log on and check their calculation and do adjustments.</p>
<p>There are a few other categories for MA returns where you can’t efile.</p>
<p>I’d rather have a simpler tax system.</p>
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<p>I’ll take a credit over a deduction anyday.</p>
<p>That business exists because the tax code is a monstrosity.</p>
<p>I think I’m almost done with my taxes!! Only owe a ton of money including amt.</p>
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The gov’t wants us to e-file because it saves them money. Why shouldn’t we share the savings?</p>
<p>The tax software companies make money on the software and on filing fees. This year I had to file for DD because she had a small amount of tax withheld even though she shouldn’t have.</p>
<p>So for a total fed+state refund of $38, I wasn’t going to pay $16 to e-file. A 10 dollar refundable credit would go a long way to getting people to e-file.</p>
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Do they preserve your info from year to year? The printout of my Federal return ran to 35 pages this year, about half of which are 4562 (depreciation) forms, which I have to do almost nothing for every year because TaxACT takes care of it automagically. It is worth the price of the software just for this.</p>
<p>I imagine MA wouldn’t like to do my paper returns with my trades in them. At least for those years when I did a few thousand trades.</p>
<p>Efiling saves my printer ink. For some reason, I end up with close to 100 page returns. I used to have to install new ink after filing the tax. I am hoping not to this year.</p>
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<p>There should be a credit for that.</p>
<p>I used to mail my returns using certified mail with a receipt requested.</p>
<p>So I guess there are some things that offset the cost of the e-file.</p>
<p>What does TurboTax charge for e-filing a state return?</p>
<p>The feds do not carry over your return information if you do fillable forms, at least not to the degree of remembering depreciation.</p>
<p>I efiled my federal return on 4/13 ,and gave banking info for the balance due. Return was accepted, and said bank account debit would be on 4/13… This still has not happened. What should I do? Maybe I gave incorrect banking info.</p>