Comments on: Open Oven, Insert Head

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:56:00 +0000

If only they were that innocuous for me, Dont Forget. ;))

By: Dont Forget To Write

Dont Forget To Write — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Taxes make me break out into a sweat.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:00:00 +0000

"...figuring out your tax is like roasting in slow motion in hell!"

Grace, thank you for the belly laugh! If only it wasn't true. Wcsfun, that's just awful! I'll check out several and choose one who specializes, but even then. I mean, we've all heard the horror stories about H&R Block, right?

By: grace

grace — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:54:00 +0000

i've really been holding out getting an accountant because they are so darn expensive. but figuring out your tax is like roasting in slow motion in hell!

huhuhu. i can never get things right by myself

By: Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:08:00 +0000

I'm with Eileen: Hire a professional! My accountant has saved my business (i.e. me) hundreds of dollars and lots o' aggravation.

Think about it this way: You’d recommend that an organization lacking in writing skills hire a professional copywriter like yourself, right? Well, the same goes for taxes. :)

By: wcsfun

wcsfun — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:16:00 +0000

Just a quick word of advice: check your return very carefully before sending - even WITH an accountant.

You may have a great one: hope so. I've tried two CPAs with no luck and now do my own taxes. My first CPA cost me years of potential retirement deductions by giving me wrong info: didn't find out till years later: too late to refile.

2nd acct also a CPA, recommended to me by a 20-year business owner. I dropped off everything organized by March 1st. This guy waited till a week before April 15th to start my return - then made careless mistakes...forgetting to deduct SEP to determine taxable income; switching spouse's SS number with mine, and more. If I hadn't proofed my own return line by line, I'd be getting an IRS letter too. Very scary, as I'm not a tax expert. He caused me major last-minute panic plus had attitude when I had to contact him several times to fix.

Now I do my own: I'd prefer not to, but am starting to trust myself more than the "experts".

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:31:00 +0000

Like right now, for example. We have to do the self-employment estimated tax dance. I estimated slightly higher than last year. I made considerably more (yay!). However, the math genius in me cannot figure out what the devil I should be sending to the IRS next week. Honest to God, I freeze like a possum caught in headlights.

Devon, Turbo Tax was easier, but it really didn’t guarantee accuracy, which I found out all too well. No, I can’t be trusted to do my taxes. I’ve tried. Five years in a row I embarrassed myself to the government and in one case they sent me a chastising “had you used an electronic preparation software application, you could have avoided errors.” I did, you fools. And you don’t know me very well – I could screw up the tax version of a soup sandwich!

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:46:00 +0000

We first hired an accountant when my husband had to deal with his father’s estate from another state and inheritance issues. We returned to the accountant the next year for more inheritance issues. Then we got a “you’re getting audited” letter from the IRS because of the kids’ one-year income. We called the accountant, and he handled everything as part of the fee we paid him to do our taxes initially. The following year we added my freelance work to the mix, and we’ll never do our own taxes again. I couldn’t say how much money we saved, but the aggrivation we save is priceless.

By: writtenexpressions

writtenexpressions — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:16:00 +0000

As if any branch of our government is in a position to be telling us that we've screwed something up . . .

By: Kimberly Ben

Kimberly Ben — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Lori, I need a professional to help with my taxes. I’m great at being organized and keeping up with the littlest details, but that’s pretty much where it ends for me. I could pretty much count on a lovely letter from the IRS if I tried tackling it all myself.