how can I get from using tax preparers to doing my own taxes
April 26, 2015 12:07 PM Subscribe
My partner and I have gotten into the habit of using tax preparers over the past decade, with the end result that I no longer feel like I really understand what's going on with my tax return. How can i get from where I am now to doing them myself with a high degree of understanding of my tax situation.
I used to do my own taxes using Turbo Tax as a single person with a business, and managed to hack my way through the process every year. When I married, my wife preferred to use a preparer and as our joint return was more complex, that's what we did. As of now, she has a business, I'm employed, we own a home and we rent out a section of our home as a studio.
I wouldn't call this a hugely complex return.
I've basically been fired by our last preparer in part because I was asking questions outside the range of their desire to assist and your typical preparer is just there to do the numbers, at least that's my picture. They recommended I find a tax consultant.
I need to be able to look at the return and see how the choices made over the years are adding up to my current scenario, be able to ask questions and get reasonable answers that I can understand and act on.
The problem I've had to date is that I've used accountants, CPA's and preparers who are basically there to do the numbers. Raising my learning curve, or taking the long view isn't part of their paycheck.
Note, I don't think I have any problems in my return looming, no mistakes that are going to call down the wrath of the IRS, it's more a case I want to get this under my wing rather than relying on preparers who I think are making choices that I may not understand fully when the return is filed.
It's also really bugging me that I get through 85% of a tax return then start hitting land mines like WTF does this mean on my return, or are these depreciation schedules correct and what does that mean when we sell our house? I started a return in Taxact and am at this point now.
I've filed an extension for 2014 return and now need to find this person, service, or course that will get me to tax-bliss, meaning I can do the return myself and understand 'what it all means' at least to the extent that it's important to know.
I used to do my own taxes using Turbo Tax as a single person with a business, and managed to hack my way through the process every year. When I married, my wife preferred to use a preparer and as our joint return was more complex, that's what we did. As of now, she has a business, I'm employed, we own a home and we rent out a section of our home as a studio.
I wouldn't call this a hugely complex return.
I've basically been fired by our last preparer in part because I was asking questions outside the range of their desire to assist and your typical preparer is just there to do the numbers, at least that's my picture. They recommended I find a tax consultant.
I need to be able to look at the return and see how the choices made over the years are adding up to my current scenario, be able to ask questions and get reasonable answers that I can understand and act on.
The problem I've had to date is that I've used accountants, CPA's and preparers who are basically there to do the numbers. Raising my learning curve, or taking the long view isn't part of their paycheck.
Note, I don't think I have any problems in my return looming, no mistakes that are going to call down the wrath of the IRS, it's more a case I want to get this under my wing rather than relying on preparers who I think are making choices that I may not understand fully when the return is filed.
It's also really bugging me that I get through 85% of a tax return then start hitting land mines like WTF does this mean on my return, or are these depreciation schedules correct and what does that mean when we sell our house? I started a return in Taxact and am at this point now.
I've filed an extension for 2014 return and now need to find this person, service, or course that will get me to tax-bliss, meaning I can do the return myself and understand 'what it all means' at least to the extent that it's important to know.
Seconding srboisvert said in that I would try to recreate previous years. If you can get them pretty similar if not the same, then I think it will help you understand what your preparer did. The other thing you could consider is to sit down with your preparer in a month or so (let her relax from the just finished tax season) and have her walk you through the return page by page. Most of them are using a canned program.
posted by AugustWest at 1:32 PM on April 26, 2015
posted by AugustWest at 1:32 PM on April 26, 2015
My preparer (who has been doing my stupidly-complicated taxes for 15-20 years now) gives me an itemized list of what she had to do to get them squared away, as part of her invoice. (Which worksheets, schedules, forms, etc.) In principle I could figure this out from looking at the assembled return packet, but the brief overview is a big help. If I needed to I could probably bootstrap my way into doing my own taxes by using her past invoices as a guide. Is that something you could get from your previous years' preparers?
posted by dorque at 1:35 PM on April 26, 2015
posted by dorque at 1:35 PM on April 26, 2015
It sort of sounds like you want someone to tutor you in taxes? I think most CPAs and preparers are just not going to want to take the time unless you pay them to do so. Have you thought of getting a tax textbook in business taxation? Not like a dummy's guide (though that might be fun and helpful) but the sort of textbook that accounting students use in their first tax course? Also, reading IRS materials on various topics could help you understand, examples are almost always presented.
posted by stowaway at 2:11 PM on April 26, 2015
posted by stowaway at 2:11 PM on April 26, 2015
The friendly folks at the IRS are paid to answer your questions about their tax forms.
posted by aniola at 8:42 PM on April 26, 2015
posted by aniola at 8:42 PM on April 26, 2015
All the forms come with instructions. Just follow those instructions. It's really not that hard.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:43 AM on April 27, 2015
posted by Jacqueline at 2:43 AM on April 27, 2015
It sort of sounds like you want someone to tutor you in taxes? I think most CPAs and preparers are just not going to want to take the time unless you pay them to do so.
Yes. I had a CPA review my completed returns from the last couple of years; she OKed them and then spent about 10 minutes reviewing some issues with me. You should be able to find someone willing to do that, though you might have to call around. If you have trouble, maybe you could contact the accounting department of a local university and see if they have a student willing to do it. Your situation is more complicated than average, but far from unusual.
The friendly folks at the IRS are paid to answer your questions about their tax forms.
HAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHA!!!!!
The IRS will answer less than half your calls this filing season: "Taxpayers will face the worst levels of service in more than a decade from the Internal Revenue Service this filing season, with as few as 43 percent of callers getting through to an agent and then only after waits of 30 minutes or more, according to a report released Wednesday.
In her annual report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson paints a grim picture of an agency crippled by five years of congressional budget cuts and forced to tolerate a “devastating erosion of taxpayer service.”
In addition to being unable to answer the phone, the IRS will be unable to provide answers to anything but “basic” tax-law questions. After the filing season, it will answer no tax-law questions at all. "
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:38 AM on April 27, 2015
Yes. I had a CPA review my completed returns from the last couple of years; she OKed them and then spent about 10 minutes reviewing some issues with me. You should be able to find someone willing to do that, though you might have to call around. If you have trouble, maybe you could contact the accounting department of a local university and see if they have a student willing to do it. Your situation is more complicated than average, but far from unusual.
The friendly folks at the IRS are paid to answer your questions about their tax forms.
HAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHA!!!!!
The IRS will answer less than half your calls this filing season: "Taxpayers will face the worst levels of service in more than a decade from the Internal Revenue Service this filing season, with as few as 43 percent of callers getting through to an agent and then only after waits of 30 minutes or more, according to a report released Wednesday.
In her annual report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson paints a grim picture of an agency crippled by five years of congressional budget cuts and forced to tolerate a “devastating erosion of taxpayer service.”
In addition to being unable to answer the phone, the IRS will be unable to provide answers to anything but “basic” tax-law questions. After the filing season, it will answer no tax-law questions at all. "
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:38 AM on April 27, 2015
Best answer: take a whack using the free fillable forms and following the instructions. You can make an account and futz around all you want with different forms and just not e-file it.
posted by WeekendJen at 12:42 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by WeekendJen at 12:42 PM on April 27, 2015
Response by poster: Like many things in life, if you are willing to suffer your way through a basic resistance to doing something new, eventually things give way and you are done. Thanks for all the useful answers.
posted by diode at 1:52 PM on May 27, 2015
posted by diode at 1:52 PM on May 27, 2015
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I've avoided the tax return 'pros' because in interacting with them i realized that many of them are not able to do much more than simplest returns and unless you are paying a lot you are not really getting an expert. (One accountancy expected me to pay $300 an hour for a high school student intern to do my return!)
This is pretty much a learn by doing situation and you can practice with earlier returns because you have your filed tax returns as an answer set.
posted by srboisvert at 1:27 PM on April 26, 2015