I like to pay taxes.
With them I buy civilization.~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
OK, nobody really likes to pay taxes. But the order-loving side of me enjoys the calculations involved, the collecting of relevant papers, the sorting of numbers and then the filing away of another year.
Even though everybody and their mother insists that you should have “someone” do your taxes when they get the slightest bit complicated (my husband lives in one state and works in another part of the time, I am a freelancer and independent contractor), I’ve always used Turbo Tax. It’s easy and gets easier every year. It took me less than an hour to prepare my tax returns for federal and two states, and I can do it in my sweats while watching TV (always a selling point). And then it printed out vouchers for me to use while paying my estimated taxes for 2010.
Turbo Tax also saves your info from year to year, and now is linked to Mint.com. Mint is a free online budgeting and tracking system that I just recently signed up for, and I can already see how much easier it’s going to make next year’s taxes– I can just flag anything that was purchased for business, and it’ll upload next year along with real estate taxes and mortgage interest as appropriate for deductions. AWESOME. Turbo Tax is also linked to Quicken and Microsoft Money, but as I don’t use those programs, I can’t speak as to how seamless that process is.
Anyhoo, the reason I’m telling you all this is because Kelly, a lovely local lady over at The Centsible Life, DM’d me on Twitter last week to let me know that I’d won a gift card for Turbo Tax– but I’d already done my taxes the week before! Nothing unusual there, really; that’s how my life works.
I was hoping that it would still be good next year, but alas, it specifies 2009.
So my loss is your gain! Win a Turbo Tax Deluxe gift card– redeemable at TurboTax.com and good for one free federal + state preparation and e-file with TurboTax Deluxe Online 2009.
Just leave me a reply below letting me know how you feel about taxtime to enter, and on Sunday, February 28th at midnight I’ll pull a random winner.
I feel pain and anguish around tax time. We also live/work in many locales, and now we have to pay taxes in NJ and in the UK, with two different tax due dates, four different authorities to report to, blech. What a nightmare! I am curious about Turbo Tax and what it can do for us as we pay taxes in two countries at once.
:)Kathryn
Robin… glad that you are back on the blogging train! My favorite thing about tax season is now that I am married to an accounting geek I think he secretly looks forward to tax season… but I know he would still appreciate turbo tax rather than doing it by hand like he has in previous years!
I've been going the totally lazy route and having someone else do them for me, and every year I tell myself, "This is going to be the year I do them myself." Well, it's been about 12 years now…but maybe this WILL be the year!
If I don't win this, you will be without a roommate at Blogher. I'm leaving this anonymous as I don't want to make others hate me BUT YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS. I don't need the state edition. We don't have state income taxes in the place where I live.
I hate.. hate.. hate.. dislike.. detest.. despise.. hate.. hate.. deapair at.. cannot do.. panic at the thought of.. try to avoid.. doing taxes.
That's me.. Gerry.. Danielle L forwarded me your blog..
Tax time isn't so painful for us because we use an accountant. He's very knowledgeable and efficient. But I'd be thrilled to save the cost of his fee if I found a better way! I'm all about a bargain.
Doing taxes is such a pain and burden… Years prior I left it up to my father who never got a tax return for me… Last few years I had my wife do it… Now I am divorced and I stare at my w-2's like it's a leprechaun doing a jig… So aka, pick me pick me…
Jeff Schroth
Don't hate doing my taxes…Use Turbo Tax every year. I've used it since it first came out. Makes tax time a lot easier. Hope I win!