Years ago, there were problems with turbo tax and taking credits that could be carried over in the wrong order. In my case it was applying the adoption credit first, and that was a carry over cred so it should have taken child credits and child care credits first, leaving the carry over credits to last. I don’t remember how it got fixed but it did. But yes, if you didn’t know to watch for that there could be credits missed.
When I was doing my kids’ taxes, one year I had to use three different programs (I think it was TT, TaxAct, and Freedom?) because didn’t ones didn’t accept certain forms. One of my kids had scholarships she had to pay on and one of the programs wouldn’t take that form and the other kid had something else and after I’d gone through the whole thing it wouldn’t take the last bit of info. I had to do theirs and then mine to take the tuition credits. That was not a pleasant weekend.
This year, however, I don’t have much income and turbotax worked just fine (I can even use the free version). Best part is the state return is included and we get an $800 refund for just filing. Did it tonight and it all took about 45 minutes, including my having to find a 1099 (in the second place I looked) and having to enter my DL number which is in the teeniest, tiniest type on my license (yes, I needed a magnifying glass) and my bank info.
I’m using Turbo Tax for my kids federal - but now I have to do state taxes too.
Hopefully I can find free versions, even if paper - because my version wanted $45 and I’m not paying that. That’s my next project - hopefully by month end - so I can start on my taxes!!
But I need to do Arizona for one and then SC and DC for another. ugh
This is the third year I have used Turbo Tax (Fidelity footed the bill except for $5 state form and $25 state e-filing). It does get easier. Desktop premier version allowed me to look at the one form that was triggering a problem to file electronically. I am extremely thankful of their help.
After much angst on a mineral rights form, I called them at 9:30 PM. I fully expected to up grade to a few hundred dollar help thing. But that never came up. The tech who spoke in a very supportive way and the accountant who never spoke (only had a red arrow for directing me on Glance version) were extremely helpful. It turns out it was human error (mine) that I picked a default of rental rather than mineral rights at the initial entry. I did come up with the idea to throw out the form and start at the beginning of the entry, and the tech caught the error.
Then there were a few more glitches that showed up and they asked me if I wanted to do it myself or if I wanted them to walk me through it. I chose the latter and filed last night. Whew!
Stuff from the brokerage 1099 - need to put in the OID amount (it’s on the 1099). Puerto Rico bonds that were called - need the cost basis - well Schwab didn’t provide because the bonds went through a bankruptcy and were “exchanged”. What state did this interest come from?
How much foreign tax? Why didn’t you take it off the 1099. I just write 0 on everything and my amount owed doesn’t go up - so I hope I’m good. When it asks for which state, it doesn’t matter which I pick since I won’t do my state tax through them. All these questions seem to be for their worksheets - vs. the formal return.
it goes on and on.
On my daughters return maybe I’ll remove the 1098-T - because we paid like $20K to her school (according to the 1098T) but got back $40K.
So it wants to say it’s income.
But she went to another school for a semester - but our school gave the aid. So at that school, she paid and got nothing. and that’s noted on their 1098. The scholarship came from our school so it looks like the scholarship was double what we paid.
But when I did all this -her income went up and went from getting a refund to owing hundreds.
I know it’s not right - but can’t figure out in TT how to fix it.
Always the issue with TT. I’ll figure it out eventually or just take them off.
I do my taxes each year and who the heck knows if they are right.
But I figure, if I go to an accountant - they’re just doing them with software too- and they likely don’t understand all these nuances either.
But TT is certainly never as easy as it’s billed - although I do love downloading the brokerage accounts and W2s. Makes that part much easier.