Turbo Tax question
Community
Does turbo tax get you the same amount back that a CPA does? I have used TT for years and always hear guys at work claim that their CPA got them X amount of money back and there is always a substantial difference than what I end up with. I know one couple with 3 small kids that make less than 40K a year and they got 10 grand back this year. I thought you couldn't get more back than you paid in or is their CPA a crook? What's the deal?
Went to Walmart this past weekend and they did not have Turbo Tax. Said it would not be available until the middle of March. WTF?
Theoretically, your taxes should be prepared the same way whether it’s a CPA or an online program. Unless you have a complex filing, chances are any online program is going to result in the same tax bill/refund as a CPA.
A couple years ago, one of the guys I used to work with, decided he was going to try Turbo Tax. He told us that when he was filling in all the information, it was “like a slot machine”.
Seemed that every time he would enter numbers, the total return would change. He kept pushing the limit till he thought it was a good time to “Cash Out” and filed. He said there were quite a few questionable expenses put in.
I use Turbo Tax and it worked out to be around the same as when I took them to H&R block. Also dont forget that you have to pay someone alot more then Turbo Tax. If you have complicated taxes then go to CPA and if easy use Turbo Tax. I pay around $50 to use Turbo Tax vs $200 to $400 for CPA.
If you are talking W-2 wages, some interest and a few dividends, kids under 17... Turbo Tax is fine.
If you are self-employed, have a lot of investments, insurance through ObummerCare, or have college age kids. I would definitely recommend a CPA. Lots of things in those items that can make a huge difference in your tax liability. Take having college kids, the only way to truly get the best outcome is to have someone who can think about both yours and your kids tax return. Various ways to LEGALLY move the numbers around to get the best overall outcome.
Full disclosure, I am a CPA and I have used the online Turbo Tax before.
You get what you pay for, HnR block is cheap but they aren’t going to explore your deductions and things that will be advantageous to you. They just don’t have the time or get paid enough. Turbo tax is self directed, so I assume there’s lots of room for “generous deductions”. I always wonder if turbo tax filers get audited more often as a result.
atheist. The way you LIE, there is no way that your taxes are honest. No way.
TT is part free but not the other half. You pay for state tax prep but not federal. Atheist HR block is around $300 so not cheap. Turbo Tax walks you through it so if you dont have any odd ball deductions its straight forward and easy. You will say why didnt I try this sooner. If you have any questions on deductions you can click on parts of it and it tells you what you can and cant deduct. Easy PZ.
As a CPA I can tell you Turbo Tax will calculate your return correctly but it is up to you to put in the correct data. I can tell you every return that I've looked at done by non cpa's that have kids in college are always done wrong and they screw themselves out of the education credits.
My son is in college and after entering the 1098T, It said I got zero credit for him. Wife started working there last July and son now goes for free so that benefits me more than a refund would. Still nice to get a good refund though.
Make sure you go in a click on the "education optimizer" on the page or it won't calculate your credit.
If you want a bigger refund, you can always increase your withholding! After all, that’s really what a refund reflects - how much you overpaid on your tax bill.
Assuming you understand all of the tax laws and you capture all your deductions, the tax bill calculated by TT should be identical to one calculated by a CPA. Depending on how complicated your filing is, that is where a CPA can help - there might be deductions and strategies that you don’t know about. That said, the efile programs are set up to try and extract that information to a large degree. And arbitrarily entering numbers to watch the slot machine roll up or down just sounds like tax fraud haha
My wife and I are both W2 wage earners, both in our 30s, with no kids. I had a CPA do our taxes last year because we had just gotten married and given our income disparity, I was hoping the CPA might be able to come up with a strategy to lower the tax bill. At the end of the day, given our straight forward filings, there really wasn’t a secret strategy so to speak and I could have probably saved myself the $800 it cost me to have the CPA do our taxes. But, again, not every situation is similar and you need to make that call for yourself. CPAs definitely have their place and as I get closer to retirement I’ll likely start using one again.
Two years ago I was skeptical of the refund or lack thereof so I took my taxes to a CPA and the amount I owed was the same as what I was getting with TurboTax. Going to the CPA costed me another 300$, what a kick in the shorts.
If your taxes are straight forward, turbo tax is great. the more complicated it gets the more expensive TT gets, they have several models. Check the back of the box for things like free federal filing, free state download etc. then pick the right one.
I've done stock trades, private home run businesses and now just simple taxes (two incomes on W2, itemized deductions and no more kids).
It asks you lots of questions and you answer them which guides you to things. The accuracy of the return is only as good as the data you give it, same as with a CPA, the difference is the CPA would know to drill down into things as needed, where TT might not.
