St Louis Tax Preparer

February 9, 2013 7:05 PM

I'm looking for a recommendation for someone in the St. Louis area (or Metro East) who prepares taxes.

For the past three years, my husband and I have been living in Illinois and working partly in Missouri, partially in Illinois. We have also been paying a sad amount to each state both years. I've always done our taxes and spent A LOT of time researching deductions to no avail. As this is the third year that we've managed to get a federal refund and had to pay the state taxes Mr. Aetg has determined we need to take them to someone to get confirmation that taxes do indeed suck.

Where can we go to get this accomplished? I refuse to go to HR Block or the like. Last year I tried to do this and after spending 30 mins telling the other person what my deductions were I just left without finishing it. I'm looking for more guidance than that. Also, I would like to know on average what I should expect to pay, as I've never paid to have my taxes done before.

Thanks in advance!

posted by aetg to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Since nobody's chimed in, I'm going to throw in a sort of non-answer. Have you considered using a tax software? I use H&R Block At Home and have been very happy for the past few years, although I just have a plain vanilla tax return. You may want to see if the Deluxe version meets your needs because of your special circumstances. It sounds like you will need to download the IL and MO state programs (first state is free; you will probably need to pay for the 2nd state program). The program seems pretty thorough about collecting a boatload of information about different deductions. The overall process of doing your taxes with the program is very automated - just punch in your numbers and it does the math for you.
posted by puritycontrol at 10:27 AM on February 11, 2013

Response by poster: Puritycontrol--good idea. I've actually been using H&R Block at Home for several years. I think that paying a bunch is probably just going to happen, but I thought that maybe I'd ask around. If anything get some suggestions on what to do for next year.
posted by aetg at 11:58 AM on February 11, 2013