Okay. I’ll admit it. I’ve made my life more complicated than necessary. I manage a couple of limited liability companies and help with a startup corporation. My personal finances are not complicated. I usually buy a tax software program and prepare taxes myself.
I like Turbo Tax. It forces me to buy a program for business and another for personal. It used to cover both but switched its marketing. It is something I should agree with. I like the idea of not paying for what you don’t need. However, I also like the convenience of making one purchase and not having to look at every option to decide what I need.
Years ago, I used H&R Block. I had a problem and couldn’t get help. It was so frustrating that I said I would never use it again. Well hell must have frozen over. I asked Grok for the best option for doing taxes and H&R Block was at the top. I thought perhaps it had improved. Plus, it was cheaper. Wrong move.
Next year, I’ll go back to Turbo Tax. It just seems to work. If I ask for help with H&R Block, it takes me to the IRS instructions. Hell, if I could make sense of the instructions, I wouldn’t buy the program. As I remember, the explanations with Turbo Tax are better. Turbo Tax asks questions that I know the answer to. Then it fills out the forms.
I called the help line for H&R Block twice (so far) this year. I got a very pleasant woman the first time who told me that perhaps the problem I was experiencing would be fixed with the next update. When it wasn’t, I called back and got a very professional man who helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. He had helped someone else with the same issue, leading me to believe it was the instructions and not merely my stupidity.
When I was completing my personal taxes, it asked about a statement from my LLC. The statement hadn’t been printed by the business software. That will be my next call.
I have spent hours. I saved less than $200. My time doesn’t seem to be worth much these days, when I look at my income. But when I consider that I’d rather be writing or teaching, I will place a higher value on my time next year. I’ll pay more to work less.
Yes. I could just hire an accountant. However, I’ve done that in the past. I find it educational to do it myself. One year my accountant set up my corporation as a disregarded entity. I got the liability protection advantages of being a corporation. I did not get the reduced payroll tax advantage of being a corporation.
I was pleased to see the increase in standard deduction this year. Perhaps that will be the next article.
Thanks for reading. Remember to file your taxes AND value your time.