Anyone know a good tax person

[TUalum0982]

So I got married in 2009, trying to decide to file married joint or married but seperate.  Some pros and cons for both of which I wont go into too much detail.  I bought turbo tax this yr thinking that would help me figure it all out, but it has made it somewhat more confusing.

One thing that is extremely frustrating is learning that I have to pay taxes on my state REFUND from 2008 that I received in 2009.  I have never had to do this in the past, why am I now? Is it because it was so much?  Why in the world am I paying taxes on something that I have already paid taxes on (hence why I got a refund!) 

Anyways, just one of the few questions I have.  Anyone know someone locally who will look at my situation and file taxes that isn't super expensive?

I have seen H&R Block ads, and while I have no experience with them, I just don't get the right vibe from them.  Something about being in every Walmart, Kmart, Sears that seems a little off? Correct me if I am wrong though

Thanks in advance

[Conan71]

Unless you had any complicated real estate transactions or sales of stock or cashed out any investments, Turbo Tax will suffice.  My understanding is, your state income tax refund is taxable as your federal tax would be calculated after your state taxes were taken out.  I have no idea how much money is at stake here, but unless anything you think you will save won't outrun what you already spent on TT and a local tax prep, I would use your TT.  It's pretty straightforward and not really much different than the software your tax pro will use, assuming you didn't have any of the situations I mentioned above.  You can run all the scenarios to figure out which filing status is best on your own.

[Red Arrow]

One thing that is extremely frustrating is learning that I have to pay taxes on my state REFUND from 2008 that I received in 2009.  I have never had to do this in the past, why am I now? Is it because it was so much?  Why in the world am I paying taxes on something that I have already paid taxes on (hence why I got a refund!) 

If you itemized your deductions and deducted your state withholding from your federal tax and got a refund from the state, you haven't paid federal tax on the difference between the state withholding and what you actually paid to the state. You take care of the difference the next year.

[TUalum0982]

Unless you had any complicated real estate transactions or sales of stock or cashed out any investments, Turbo Tax will suffice.  My understanding is, your state income tax refund is taxable as your federal tax would be calculated after your state taxes were taken out.  I have no idea how much money is at stake here, but unless anything you think you will save won't outrun what you already spent on TT and a local tax prep, I would use your TT.  It's pretty straightforward and not really much different than the software your tax pro will use, assuming you didn't have any of the situations I mentioned above.  You can run all the scenarios to figure out which filing status is best on your own.

thanks for the info Conan and Red Arrow.

Going into detail here but it looks like if my wife filed married but seperate, she would owe 1300 dollars and I would get back 2,000.  That is with using the interest we paid on our home mortgage on my return and not hers.  If we file married joint, we only get 70 dollars back.  Also, another thing I learned with TT, if you file married but seperate you can't use the interest you paid on your student loans, only if you file married joint.  Even though we got married in June (halfway through the yr) we can't deduct a single penny.  Big picture here though, it looks like our best bet is to file seperate so I can get the 2K back, and then pay the 1300 in taxes that she owes.

One other question, how much of your property tax can you deduct? Is it all of it or only the homestead exemption part?  I just started messing around with TT today, so I am sure it will answer itself eventually.

Thanks again for the replies Conan and RA.

[Mike 01Hawk]

We use http://www.financialbuildersllc.com/ @ 81st and Memorial.  They are very reasonable.  Probably more than what HR would charge.  Dunno.

[sgrizzle]

Married/Separate or Married/Joint has to do somewhat with how much each person makes. If you both make healthy salaries, sometimes separate is best. If one of you makes a lot more than the other, joint is often best. It is my understanding that joint wins most of the time.

I would suggest you look at your W-4's now since it sounds like your wife needs to switch to M/0 to get enough money taken out of her check (or maybe she is self employed/contract which would also explain it)

[Gaspar]

I'm on my 9th year using Turbo Tax.  I use the Turbo Tax Deluxe Business addition now because we own several businesses.  It has some tools that make it very easy to determine good filing strategies.  I have yet to need any outside help and it comes very highly recommended. 


We got our refund in 8 days this year, and it only took me an hour and a half to do all of our home and business taxes. 

[GG]

You might ask US Treasury Sec. Tim Gietner.  I heard he had good advise.   

[sauerkraut]

So I got married in 2009, trying to decide to file married joint or married but seperate.  Some pros and cons for both of which I wont go into too much detail.  I bought turbo tax this yr thinking that would help me figure it all out, but it has made it somewhat more confusing.

One thing that is extremely frustrating is learning that I have to pay taxes on my state REFUND from 2008 that I received in 2009.  I have never had to do this in the past, why am I now? Is it because it was so much?  Why in the world am I paying taxes on something that I have already paid taxes on (hence why I got a refund!)  

Anyways, just one of the few questions I have.  Anyone know someone locally who will look at my situation and file taxes that isn't super expensive?

I have seen H&R Block ads, and while I have no experience with them, I just don't get the right vibe from them.  Something about being in every Walmart, Kmart, Sears that seems a little off? Correct me if I am wrong though

Thanks in advance

If you find a good tax person let me know too- I went to a major tax company that starts with a "H" and they did not seem to know what they were doing when I filed a amended 2008 tax return because I bought a house in 2009- The IRS sent back my return and said I needed to file a updated form 5405 (Revised form) so I had to go back to the tax service and then they said they fixed it, but before I mailed it off I looked at my paper work to be sure it was all there and I was missing page #1 of the 1040X, so I had to go back to the tax office and then when I was there they said I need to change a few other other things. I finally got it mailed off. They did ok with my 2009 regular income taxes though, but expensive, expensive and expensive my refund was eaten up by the fees they charged. They did not seem very sure about how to handle the buying of a house and the tax rebates, it made me seem as if I was the only customer who bought a home.