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Comment by markc | Hacker News Reader

I was 80% done with my taxes this year when TT suddenly demanded an additional $119 to list deductible expenses on income. That’s on top of $140 to file Federal plus 1 state. I’ve been using TT for 20 years. Never again.

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I'm not confident in my ability to get my taxes right (mostly due to my wife and I having owned small businesses plus my day job's stock awards and ESPP), so I've paid a local CPA to do our taxes for years now. He always did an incredible job, was happy to answer my questions for me (tax-related or not), helped us refi our house at an amazing price, and so on. His fees were something on the order of $400 or maybe even as high as $600 some years. But [a] I knew he always had our back, [b] his services partially or entirely paid for themselves in savings I probably wouldn't have caught, and [c] I was paying an individual who earned his keep as compared to a company like Intuit.

Hiring a CPA was one of the best decisions I have made in my entire adult life.

I mean, I agree. Especially in the US. I was forced to hire a CPA because of some complicated international stuff. Until then I filed it myself. I have used TaxAct and Credit Karma taxes (which is now Cash app tax). TaxAct is cheap and fully functional. Credit Karma was also straightforward, easy to use and accurate.

CPA can also be useful beyond just tax filing. My CPA does a half year evaluation to see if I'd owe any additional tax and plan accordingly. They also makes sure I get all the deductions I can.

My experience with CPAs has been poor. "I dunno, just put what you think is right" is how the last person I paid told me to handle a mismatch between my wife's actually grant payments and her 1098-T.

1098-T forms are notoriously unreliable. Schools will often misclassify or omit scholarships and payments. And you might have additional educational expenses like books that aren't listed in the first place. It doesn't excuse your experience, though; that tax preparer should have made a better effort to understand the figures.

Out of curiosity, was the tax preparer actually a licensed CPA, or just someone with no professional credentials? If they were a CPA, did they prepare individual tax returns regularly or only as a side job?

> 1098-T forms are notoriously unreliable. Schools will often misclassify or omit scholarships and payments. And you might have additional educational expenses like books that aren't listed in the first place.

Worse, virtually all of the 1098-T guidance exists for undergrads. The problems with the form are entirely different for graduate students and basically nobody can help.

> Out of curiosity, was the tax preparer actually a licensed CPA, or just someone with no professional credentials? If they were a CPA, did they prepare individual tax returns regularly or only as a side job?

It's been a bunch of years so I don't know for certain, but they weren't just a desk worker at H&R Block. Tax preparation was their primary job.

In my experience, somebody who has tax preparation as a primary job is often not a CPA. A CPA usually offers a suite of services, and is also usually a lot more useful.

My CPA is great, and I save money through using his services.

"Primary job" as in "not a side gig."

Gotcha. Still worth noting that going to somebody whose sign says "tax preparer" often isn't the same thing as "accountant", and one conflates at their peril!

Your situation sounds like one that a CPA would be perfect for - especially with business taxes involved.

Our household has just the basic salaries / expenses / 401k / IRAs. THe year I received some temporary additional benefits, Intuit decided that I had to pay premium in order to enter that single additional 1099.

I left, found a much simpler, straightforward service with which I filed legitimately free, and have never looked back.

Plus, I've read about Intuit's history with the whole market, and I will never willingly give them a damn cent.

> I left, found a much simpler, straightforward service with which I filed legitimately free, and have never looked back.

Which service is that? I haven't filed my taxes this year and am willing to spend some time switching to an app that's less scummy than Intuit's offerings.

Not GP but I've been using TaxHawk/FreeTaxUSA (same company runs both sites) for more than a decade with no problems, no upsells, and no dark patterns. Filing federal taxes is completely free with them for everyone, so there's no harm in giving them a shot. If you want to add your state tax filing in at the end (if applicable) it will only cost $15. There's no obligation to buy anything, you can file your federal taxes for free without purchasing the state tax filing option.

It's not like an honest mistake is the end of the world. I've made tax mistakes. You get a letter from the IRS, with the amount you owe or are due back, and you settle up. There are no draconian penalties or full audits unless they suspect intentional fraud.

The IRS will even send you "you screwed up and paid us too much, you forgot X" letters at times.

What they can't do for you is know about deductions sometimes.

I was once on an IRS payment plan, and a) the interest rate was remarkably low and b) the folks I talked to when I needed to adjust it were the nicest customer service reps I think I've ever encountered.

They're usually shockingly pleasant to deal with, too. Having owned a couple of small businesses over the years, our taxes can get complex. There were a couple of times where the IRS had questions about our filed returns, and the clerks we dealt with have always been genuinely nice, helpful to work with, and authorized to exercise decent human judgment.

Them: It says here you spent $X on healthcare expenses.

Me: I've got 4 kids. I always hit my deductible.

Them, literally laughing: Yeah, kids are expensive. OK, moving on...

Yep, that has been my experience. I got pretty freaked out once when I received a large packet from the IRS in the mail. Turns out I forgot to report a stock sale and just owed them a few hundred bucks. The only penalty was having to pay interest on the amount at a rate that was a little high but not egregious.

I could probably do my taxes with a 1040-EZ most years, but I still pay a local CPA $300 to do it for me. I'm just happier without $300 but with taxes done.

taxact.com did the same trick. Raised prices for a few consecutive years for no apparent reason.

They have your previous filings so switching to another provider can be a pain since you need to know last year income when submitting your filing. I always make sure to at least download the PDF's.

As a consumer we're always free to vote with our wallet and I've been happy with freetaxusa so far but I'm also waiting for the "rate hike" to come...

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