posted on April 5, 2001 01:25:14 PM new
I picked up my completed tax forms today. Last year they charged me $50 for my personal taxes, & $50 for my buisness (ebay sales). This year she charged 270.00 for the ebay sales, & wants 600 next year! ($50 month) I am a small time seller, & only had around 10K in sales last year.
So I defintely want to learn how to do my own taxes this year, but am not sure where to start as I have always paid someone. Does anyone here use tax software? I am looking for something I can update monthly, so that at the end of the year it will mostly be done.
posted on April 5, 2001 01:51:26 PM new
You can get a cheap package of Turbotax and Quicken combo. After rebates ($35), it is like around $10. The TurboTax will not be of use to you this year as your taxes are done for 2000. But the Quicken is what you need.
You can than fool around with the Quicken and try to set it up for year 2001. The Quicken will pass the information into Turbotax automatically if setup properly.
As a test and not too time consumming, you can reenter your year 2000 data into Quicken, pass it to Turbotax 2000 and see how close it comes to your accountant's return.
posted on April 5, 2001 02:01:34 PM new
Your getting off easy. Between my online selling and personal taxes, I'm paying $1,800 a year to my accountant. On the plus side, at least I know it is being done right.
posted on April 5, 2001 02:02:51 PM new
Wow! I'd say shop around for a different accountant! Mine only charges me $125 to do my taxes. He's also a pretty well-known accountant around here, he's also the Mayor!
Shop around, you can find someone else MUCH more reasonable!
posted on April 5, 2001 02:48:13 PM new
I rely on TurboTax. It's easy to use and saves me much time and stress every year! I even filed an amended return this year with no problems.
posted on April 5, 2001 03:11:43 PM new
I've used Kiplinger Tax Cut for several years now, and I love it!
I also use a Quicken-type program for my checking accounts & credit cards, so even if I did taxes manually I'd have every bit of info I need to complete the forms very fast. It's all in setting up the categories correctly--it takes some time, but it's worth every second of it!! You could work with an accountant if you're unsure of how to categorize things, but I found it to be pretty self-explanatory.
posted on April 5, 2001 03:21:31 PM new
I used to work for H&R Block, and then went on my own with an accountant buddy doing it ourselves. If all you have is a standard Schedule C for the business, with the vehicle expense, etc.. then your total tax return shouldn't cost over 100.00.
Unless, of course, you are one of 'those' that hand in a box of unsorted receipts at the end of the year. In that case, I could understand the large fee.
For doing your own taxes, TurboTax is the most 'user-friendly' software, and also the cheapest. As stated earlier, it works with both Quicken and Quickbooks, allowing you to prepare the returns with ease.
Don't forget to deduct the cost of your auto registration if you itemize
posted on April 5, 2001 03:29:47 PM newExecutive Girl's right. If you'd prefer to use an accountant, shop around for a new one.
Look for an accountant who charges a set fee per form. That way, you're paying according to how complicated your tax situation is, not according to how much money you make (or how much of your money your accountant would like to make!)
The business portion of my tax return this year cost me $125.00 (Schedule C, Schedule SE and Keogh/SEP reporting). And I use a high-end accountant with a corner office in the fancy rich folks part of a major city. We're on the very small potato end of his client scale.
If your taxes are simple, a Quicken/TurboTax combo will work okay. I use it to prep for my annual accountant visit (although every year he finds deductions I hadn't even thought of and I end up with a much lower tax bill than my TurboTax calculations).
posted on April 5, 2001 04:22:07 PM new
Thanks for the great advice!
I think I will make some calls tomorrow & see if I can find someone else. I think I will be more comfortable letting someone else handle it.
I have a folder for each month, with printouts of all my sales/profits, all deductions, mileage, fees, etc. It is pretty well organized. I don't think it should cost $50 each month, that is just too much.
posted on April 5, 2001 04:25:01 PM new
Mine charged me $500 for simple Sch C and personal taxes. I don't take home office expenses and only computer gets depreciated.
I won't be back. I have used both Turbotax and Tax Cut other years and have to say I prefer Turbotax. Taxes are not difficult--just a hassle and someone needs to teach those folks to write English.
Sounds about right for what you are charged. Assumming the preparer charges $75/hour, it will take some time to add up all your receipts and everything. If you want to save money, have everything summarize already.
Also, the preparer do need to review for reasonableness. If you have a lot of deductions, the preparer needs to be sure each one is of business purpose. It will take a little time to glance at each one.
posted on April 5, 2001 08:25:42 PM new
I hope the accountant fees for preparing the Ebay portion was taking as a business expense. 8)
If you want to keep the same accountant, do more of your own work yourself over the year so you can present organized, totaled numbers for the various expense categories.
I do it myself, and find it very easy, although I only had about $6000 in gross sales last year, I know I will be having more this year. I have Excel to track all of my auction sales, my inventories & their costs, and I have a freeware Accounting program. I can produce a balance sheet and income statement each month to track my successes (and failures), do analysis of various aspects of my activities (Ebay vs. Yahoo vs. Direct, etc).
I have found the Schedule C and SE not really any more complicated that my 1040 is, and I've always done my own taxes before.. I did a little homework, called the IRS for a couple of questions, and did it myself....
But the if the peace of mind of knowing its done right is worth that much to you, that's fine too.. but I would think you could shop your business around and find someone cheaper.
posted on April 6, 2001 04:35:15 AM new
I do all my accounting for my ebay sales through Quickbooks. It is pretty easy to use, and many accountants also use it. I am lucky - my accountant uses Quickbooks, so at tax time I just make an "Accountant's Copy" through Quickbooks on a cd, and give it to him with all my receipts/expenses (which are also organized) and he loads the cd on his computer and does my taxes. I could probably do it myself (I always did my own taxes before I started selling on ebay) but I want to be sure it's done right. If I did my taxes from my ebay sales myself I'd be afraid that I had forgotten something.
posted on April 6, 2001 04:54:51 AM new
My CPA charged me $300 to file 7 forms. That is for our joint return, 2 businesses and my son's tax return ($75 for that one alone). She sends a great "prep" form at the first of the year that asks you to update any information in her file. I keep my books for home and the two businesses on Quicken so usually I just send her the monthly printouts and any additional information. I think her hourly fee is $125 an hour.
