We went to H&R Block and paid

[OhMari]

$232.
I paid it and walked out the door.
We could have said no and left, but I haven't used a tax preparer for 20 years.

I told they guy, see you in another 20.

I guess you pay by the page. We had 4 extra sheets for self employment tax. The Hope Credit. A child care page. A page for Inheritance tax, which doesn't exist, you pay taxes like you closed an IRA, what a rip off. Unemployment. Then they had to make copies to give to the state of WI which is 4 pages itself.

I had 29 pages.

I am doing the happy dance though, I am getting over 3,000 back from federal and $400 back from WI, so I let WI pay my tax preparer, so I can deduct it next year.

 

[DocRafiki]

Woah. What's their base rate? I need to get mine done. Paid a CPA's assistant $70 to do mine 2 years ago rolleyes: took 5 minutes and she left out my deductions); my friend did them last year. I need to find a new preparer.

 

[kimber79]

Do your taxes online! I have done my for 3 years now at taxactonline.com , and get my refund direct deposited within 10-14 days for like $10. It walks you through everything, and then flags possible problems ~ very easy!!

 

[lilallybean]

They were going to charge us over $175 this year. I pointed out that last year I had paid half that and if they couldn't meet or beat that I would take myself to work and inform all my co-workers of the HIGH prices. I work for the state at a large mental health hosp/prison and that sure would look bad for them. Speak your mind and let them know ( I would even call them), how very unhappy you are with the prices and that if they want YOUR business in the future you want some money back from them. Ask to see the manager...as Oprah says: "Never take 'NO' from somebody who is not authorized to give you a 'YES'"

 

[my3kids]

Turbo Tax or TaxCut! Our news did a story on various ways of doing taxes. They sent someone to H & R Block, used the software and did it a 3rd way. H & R Block came up with a smaller refund than the software. Block messed up a friend of mine's so badly one year they sent her a full refund of fees.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I do our taxes ourselves.
After my father in law passed away I thought we'd need special help doing taxes, so we paid over $150 for a cpa to do our taxes.

He did them wrong. We got a refund, but we didn't get it until June because he wrote numbers down wrong.

We thought when he submitted the work it would be done professionally. The taxes were done by someone with sloppy handwriting that was hard to read. We went to him in early February. He didn't even send in our return until April. He's still doing taxes, too. I saw his ad in the paper.

I figured, if it's going to be done wrong I might as well do it myself.

I haven't been wrong yet.

 

[olena]

Iused TurboYax til I got married. My MIL is a tax preparer.

 

[Cindy B]

I used to work for H & R Block, many years ago.. back when I was in college

You do sort of pay by the page.

If I remember correctly (this was 1989), you charged the customer per w2, ( I think 2 were included), any more than 2 you were charged per W2. Of course any Schedule or extra piece you were charged for ... schedule A, schedule C, Child Care Credit, unemployement, Hope Credit (that didn't exist then), etc.

If you had a state return to do, that was extra as well.. and if you had a foreign tax (ie working in PA but living in NJ) forget it.. its not worth it!

Psst... the software they used to use is the same as either Turbo Tax, or Tax cut! (I can't remember, but I want to say Tax Cut.. its the same tutorials/questions to ask).

So if you can follow directions, and know what you can or can't deduct, you are basically doing the same thing that H & R employees are doing.

 

[dcgrumpy]

Last year our tax preparer saved us over $3000, so we gladly handed over the money.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

We have MIL's accountant do our taxes. We have to file 2 separate state taxes for last year. She knows about both states and it is worth it to us to pay the $$$. Saves me the headache. She charges $106 for filing both states and federal. If it were only one state it would be $65.