For those of you that don't know, I work for one of the national tax prep firms. This is my third season with the company, and not only have I been teaching tax school for them the last few months, but this season I'm the office supervisor at one of our storefront locations. In addition to staffing the store, I also have the responsiblilty of staffing the location inside a large discount retail store nearby.
Monday was relatively uneventful. I did one actual tax return with a real W-2, and two using pay stubs. I also printed and organized countless training manuals and such for our office, organized the filing system, and worked out several computer related issues.
Tuesday, I focused more on advertising. I printed a few hundred "tax tips" to distribute with coupons, organized a few fund raisers for local charities, and prepared hundreds of customer envelopes. Tuesday night, the cloth-covered walls leaning against the back wall of my office were supposed to be taken over to the retail store to be set up so that location could open Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning, they were still there. Our internet was down, meaning we couldn't process bank products (read: really fast loan on your tax return) or access the company's intranet. Spent most of the day on the phone with tech support. Sigh...
Thursday morning, they were still there! My area manager promised, tonight...the retail location WILL open Friday morning. Meanwhile, the computer problem from Wednesday has managed to wipe out all access to vital systems I need to do my job. Sigh... another day with tech support.
Friday morning, the walls, two of my computers, and most of my chairs were gone! The retail location was up, but I had nowhere for customers to sit in my store. Fortunately, the delivery truck showed up by noon, but I'm still short three comfortable office chairs and two computers.
All week, I've done a total of three live returns, four using pay stubs that must stay on hold until we get their W-2's, and printed two checks for grateful customers. I've also trained eleven preparers, and will train at least 5 more next week.
Only fifteen more, only fifteen more, only fifteen more...
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Here's a tax tip: Automatic Extension to File! I did that four years in a row. Possibly more. I've gone back to filing as early as possible the last couple of years.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Boon, I've always done my own taxes. This year, I have a little bit to deduct, but not too much. I have student loans, but no large medical bills and I don't pay a mortgage.
Would having someone else prepare my taxes be worth it? In other words, is there something magical I'm missing by doing it myself?
Posts: 1753 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Boon, I have a specific tax question. If you don't want to answer that's ok. I'm doing my taxes and Steve's taxes separately through turbo tax (we aren't married)
We bought a house last year. It is jointly in both of our names. This year we want to apply the deduction completely to his tax return. But the offical form has my social security on it as the primary loan holder (I guess my name was first on the page because of alphabetical order). Just called Countrywide and they said it didn't matter which social was listed as long as it all went to one person. (?!) I'm surprised since the US gov't has a habit about being picky about such things.
I then asked, well what if we wanted to split the deduction? And he didn't have a good answer, said he'd have to get back to me. So I asked him if he could e-mail me or call me back, but it was on hold or nothing.
Any ideas? I should probably go search the IRS site.
Update Searched IRS site, and the person not on the form simply has to attach a note stating how much they paid and giving the other persons name and address! In turbo tax it doesn't even seem to require that.
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Chin up, gal! (((((Boon))))) All will be well, but good luck! Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Boon
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Javert: No, not really. You have to have more deductions than the standard deduction (which varies according to filing status and is listed on the left side of the second page of the 1040) to make itemizing your deductions worth it. IOW, you'd have to have more than (standard deduction here) worth of mortgage interest, medical bills, charitable contributions, employee business expenses, etc., to make it worthwhile, unless the only reason you were doing it were to get your money back faster, like with a loan.
As far as the student loans you mentioned, you can still deduct the interest paid, that doesn't go on the itemized deductions. I'll be glad to take a look at the numbers you come up with and give you my professional opinion before you actually file if you'd like to e-mail me.
Banna: It doesn't matter whose number is on the 1098 first, and no, you don't have to send a note to the IRS. And no, it doesn't all have to go to one person.
Simple as that!
Tax questions answered free! Legal disclaimer: Sometimes you get what you pay for!
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