How do you prepare your income taxes?

How are you doing on the deadline day for filing your federal income taxes?

Some years, I’ve been scrambling up until the last minute. I have a small business, so I need to add up my income and expenses before I can file. I don’t do it throughout the year, so it’s a time consuming job.

For many years, I took my return to an accountant to check it over to see if I made any errors. However, she retired.

One year, I took my tax return to H&R Block when I had a complicated issue. I was surprised that it cost me about $160.

Other years, I’ve tried AARP’s free tax preparation service. While it’s usually O.K., one time I didn’t like the comments a preparer made about my small business.

So this year, I decided to try TurboTax. Is it a good option for consumers? For me, it was a struggle.

I prepared my taxes in the usual way, thinking I would just need to plug the information into TurboTax. Wrong.

TurboTax divides things up into categories differently. I had to redo my itemized deductions and some other expenses. Then, my itemized deductions weren’t more than the standard deduction, so all those calculations didn’t matter.

I don’t know if I’ll try TurboTax again. Maybe. Maybe not.

Anyway, the deed is done. And, I was a week early. You can’t beat that.

Copyright 2014, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

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