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I'm thinking about contemplating possibly maybe do...
# taxes
f
I'm thinking about contemplating possibly maybe doing my own taxes this year. I have 2 w-2’s, a business income, some 1099’s from investments, and parsonage income. Would love some advice about if this is doable for someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Is there a really user friendly software? Should I just stick with a professional?
m
I like turbo tax, i would do it yourself and you can compare with what the professional did for you and see if there were things that were missed or not. You might even found that turbo tax or whatever software you find ends up finding more areas of deductions
Definitely doable, give yourself a good solid 8 hours on a sunday though, the first year you’ll need to probably read all the different buttons in turbo tax to understand everything and fill it out (very conservative time estimate)
c
This will be my third year filing through FreeTaxUSA. Highly recommend. I find it very user friendly.
c
I've used FreeTaxUSA for about 5-6 years now. They're cheaper and sometimes they give better numbers. I really only have regular w2 income aside from some 1099s-INTs which are also easy to enter though @mysterious-tomato-10057 have you tried FreeTaxUSA? I'm curious why you prefer TurboTax.
m
I'll try it this year, I think i might have enough brain space this year to try doing my own taxes again. I gave up when i started real estate investing, but i'm starting to feel more confident again
e
Don't attempt to do it yourself. Parsonage can get very tricky, and many pros don't even understand it well. People make mistakes all the time with returns with Parsonage, I have seen it many times in my work and had to amend returns. Same for business income, Turbotax is not very good at it unless you have a really simple, very small business. It depends a lot on inputs, clicking the right buttons etc. and it cannot think critically about which loopholes you may qualify for.
f
If I have the exact amount of parsonage paid to me shouldn't it be as simple as just entering that amount in? Does anyone know if freetaxusa has a section for parsonage?
c
It does, it can be a little hardto find it and work it out but I for sure something you can do yourself. Personally one year I hired an accountant then after the accountant filed I did freetaxusa(without actually filing again) and compared my accountants return with mine/ freetaxusas' and seeeing they were the same gave me the condifiance to start doing it myself going foward. I do not remember how long it took but i feel that it was a less then 8 hours the first year. The following years it goes quicker.
m
I can tell you the last person I helped file with parsonage we used TurboTax together
m
I'm a big fan of freetaxUSA as well. It's very comparable to TurboTax minus the fake graphics that try to make you feel like it's finding extra deductions for you and predatory practices turbo tax is known for.
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f
I know the name is freetaxusa but is there a cost?
c
Federal is free, state under $20 and you can also buy extra support
f
Update: I've spent the last five hours on freetaxusa and I would say overall I think it is user friendly enough. I'm stuck on the parsonage part and can't seem to find where to enter it and the representatives that I've chatted with also don't seem to know. ChatGPT has hallucinated a few solutions but it has also been helpful with entering some of the other info.
m
Good to know if they don't support it. I do know that turbo tax does.
f
I was able to find it under business income although it doesn't really make sense that it should be there and I feel like it is not calculating something right.
m
It should be under business income since it's self employment taxes you need to pay
m
Someone above mentioned they did it. Perhaps you can ask the directly how.
m
Wasn't that me? Or someone else said they did it?
m
yitzhak gerwitz
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c
enter 0 for income until they ask for housing allowance
m
Here is the relevant answer from the link If you are self-employed, you can enter your information by selecting Income > Business Income (Schedule C) from the menu. You can enter any income and expenses you have related to your clergy income there. In the Less Common Expenses section of the business income screens, we will ask if you are a minister or clergy member and gather your housing allowance and self-employment taxes information.
e
First of all with parsonage you have to calculate how much is actually parsonage and how much is excess. "Parsonage" is the amount given to cover your housing. Which is income tax free. Any excess is not. The fair market value must be used. On all of it you have to pay self employment taxes. Expenses can also be taken on excess, similar to self employment. So you see how complex it can be.
c
correction, freetaxusa will not let you file if you have parsoange without some regular schedule c income or expenses. The only way I was a le to do it, was either just putting down $1 in non parsonage income or if you had some small expenses putting them down.
f
Just as a follow up, I went through the whole process with freetaxusa and it told me that I owed about $4000 in taxes. Then I gave all the same info to my regular accountant and he says I'm getting a refund. I guess sometimes it pays to have a professional do it.
c
I said earlier that freetaxusa is my choice. Still love it but just for transparency, I decided to let a professional handle it this year because of parsonage and multiple state returns and frankly toddler burnout lol
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