Do Your Own Taxes With Turbo Tax Deluxe or Premier Software
If your like me you end up paying in to the government each year your taxes are done. Why pay someone to tell you how much tax you owe when you can do your own taxes and save the preparation fee. Turbo Tax software make doing your own taxes easy even if you run a small business.
With all the forms and paperwork involved in doing taxes I don't know how anybody does their own taxes without Turbo Tax or other tax preparation software. I started using Turbo Tax Deluxe in 2000 and found it so easy I've done my taxes with Turbo Tax ever since. Now, my taxes are not easy. I have a good personal income, I run a small business and I do a lot of investing. This means my tax software must do the standard 1044 plus schedule C and Schedule D and Schedule A. No way could I do this tax preparation myself without software that makes it easy.
A tax accountant would likely charge me several hundred dollars to do my taxes with all these forms and schedules. Turbo Tax makes it easy for me to do my own taxes and prepare my taxes in advance and get an outlook on the next years tax obligation.
Initially I was able to use Turbo Tax Deluxe which cost about $39.99 and usually had a rebate. This covered all my needs for doing my own taxes. In 2008 Intuit has changed Turbo Tax so you can still use Turbo Tax Deluxe if you do your regular income and small business. That would be a 1044 and Schedule C. If you have Stock Options that are part of your income you'll need to step up to Turbo Tax Premier which is $69.99 or typically $49.99 after rebate which is what Amazon is currently offering. Even though Intuit has forced tax payers like me to buy the more expensive version of Turbo Tax it is still WAY cheaper and easier than working with an accountant. For those hesitant to do their own taxes I'd recommend doing what my parents did. They tried Turbo Tax and then compared the end result to what their accountant came up with. They found that Turbo Tax actually found legal deductions their accountant wasn't using. When they pointed this out the accountant admitted he overlooked the deductions.
Turbo Tax also has Turbo Tax State for each state. I always use this product as well. It works great because Turbo Tax can just pull my federal information from my Turbo Tax Premier software and load the info into Turbo Tax State. This works with all other versions of Turbo Tax Software. I believe that if you purchase Turbo Tax Deluxe or Premier you also get your Turbo Tax State free after a $29.95 rebate. More info on the rebate is available at Amazon in their Turbo Tax State page.
Turbo Tax software really makes doing your own taxes as easy as it is going to get. There are other tax software out there like Tax Cut and because software like Turbo Tax and Tax Cut are now mature titles both should work well for doing your own taxes.