MAR 16
2005
Finished my taxes this weekend. Discovered too late that several web sites (including turbotax.com) offer free federal filing (state costs extra, but those are usually pretty easy once the 1040 is done, so you can just do that one by hand).

This is the last year that I'm going to use regular TurboTax (the one that runs on Windows). Their interview process is way too cumbersome now (questions like "Did you own a farm?" or "Were you employed in the clergy?"). And it didn't transfer my data over from last year's return properly. Worse, TurboTax messed up my county income taxes and deducted them incorrectly from my state return, which would have cost me money (Multnomah County tax filers using TurboTax: Double check your Oregon Form 40... TurboTax probably messed it up if you itemize your deductions!).

Web-based services seem to be the way to go now. Or I may just use this awesome Excel-based 1040 form that I found. If you have pretty straightforward taxes (W2, 1099, itemized deductions, etc.), using this Excel spreadsheet lets you bypass all of those annoying interview questions and knock out your taxes quickly.

tags: taxes reviews
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