Tax Preparation

[vonSeggern]

Has anyone tried TurboTax for doing their taxes? I understand that it has a provision for the per diem food deduction and is generally trucker friendly.

[Justruckin]

Has anyone tried TurboTax for doing their taxes? I understand that it has a provision for the per diem food deduction and is generally trucker friendly.

I have used it, and had no problems. Just stay away from the "automobile" mileage section. It does not apply to us.

And I had an accountant go over my return the following year. I missed something that she caught, and go a few extra hundred back.

I was leased on to a company at the time of that filing. I would recommend it.

You will need to know your daily perdiem, it went up this year, and I don't know what it is. Neither does TurboTax, at least the last time I used it. But a call to OOIDA will fix that.

[Skywalker]

Has anyone tried TurboTax for doing their taxes? I understand that it has a provision for the per diem food deduction and is generally trucker friendly.

I used it up until a couple of years ago....but I stopped using it when my anti-spyware program caught something in their program that wasn't nice.

Since then I have been using H&R Blocks software and been happy with it. As far as the per diem issue, with H&R's software you just have to answer the question regarding your being affected by the HOS rules and it figures the amount of your deduction against the raw total. Its easy enough to use and I haven't had any problems with it. If you live in a state that "shylock's" you with state income tax, they have a program for all the states that piggybacks on their federal tax program. I live in FL so I don't have to worry about it

[vavega]

by skywalker

I used it up until a couple of years ago....but I stopped using it when my anti-spyware program caught something in their program that wasn't nice.

that was from 2003 and was changed due to public outrage and bad press.

read about it here

i use turbotax and while it's easy and intuitively laid out, my only problem with it is you have to update it for those last minute changes. if you want to see what it looks like for free, check out turbotax online. there you can basically fill out your taxes as a dry run. i use the deluxe version to help me get all the deductions i am entitled to. :wink:

if you have say college age kids who make less than 20k adjusted, then they can use turbotax freedom for free. although they do charge for the electronic filing.

[vonSeggern]

Vaveega,
How does it handle the per diem stuff for meals etc?
Thanks

[Skywalker]

by skywalker

I used it up until a couple of years ago....but I stopped using it when my anti-spyware program caught something in their program that wasn't nice.

that was from 2003 and was changed due to public outrage and bad press.

read about it here

Thanks for that info and link!! I tried to tell some people what happened, but they thought I was nuts.... That link shows I was right

In comparing the two programs side by side...other than the skin colors, they would probably be pretty well matched....afterall, you can't get too weird when you're playing with the IRS tax codes.

For what its worth, I've always had to do an update on the H&R software too...seems the IRS likes to make changes to forms and rules...or the software companies are tugging our chains :shock: :?

I think now it probably boils down to which one gives you the better deal on the software...

[vavega]

it will allow you to do either calculation, a per diem of something like $45 (don't take that as gospel, i'm local and i don't use it but a couple times a year!) or actual, meaning if you save the reciepts you can use that total.

you're welcome! it always a pleasure to be able to let a man say he was right!

in additon to the program cost, take into account how much they charge for electronic filing if you're going that route. i'm looking at H+R block online right now just to test it out. :shock: