Use Turbotax. Super easy and relatively cheap. You might learn a thing or two as well.

Like Soundslikepuget, I'm fortunate to have a tax whiz friend who traded me a pack of cigarettes, a home cooked dinner, and a haircut to do my taxes for me. She did them last night in about an hour. The main reason I procrastinate is that doing my taxes intimidates me, although my friend insists it's really easy. If I could get someone to do them for me every year I'd be happy!

First off: you don't have to do your 2010 taxes before you do 2011. Get 2011 done first and on time, then do 2010 as soon as possible. The deadline to get 2011 taxes done is April 17, 2012.

Next: totally second Turbotax. I'm studying accounting, and I have taken one course on tax preparation; Turbotax is really easy and just as accurate as any tax preparer for most people. I use Turbotax online for free - I just get all my W-2s and other "Important Tax Information" together and answer the questions, kind of like taking a survey. Turbotax figures out what forms to file, checks for deductions, and fills all required forms out automatically. Turbotax did my student loan interest deduction for me too. This year I have a refund coming, so I entered my bank account information and it should be direct deposited soon. You can pay also, but it sounds like the free or Basic version will work for you.

I would say try Turbotax for your 2011 taxes first and see how that goes. It doesn't file until the very end, so you could go through the whole thing and not submit at the end if you're unsure. It will give you the option to look over all the forms, and you could even print them out and take it with you to the tax place if you want a second opinion.

It's totally worth it to pay for someone to do your taxes if it helps you get them done and avoid the IRS penalties and fees.  If I was going to pay, I would go to H&R Block or find a local CPA firm if my situation was more complicated (small business, lots of investments, etc.). Also CPAs can give tax planning advice - not sure if tax preparation places do that. I'm sure Liberty Tax Service is fine, but their marketing just grosses me out.

The key with getting your taxes done is to keep all your documents together and make an appointment for February or March. I think some firms will schedule you for the next year and give you reminder calls before that appointment - probably not the tax preparation places, but the CPA firms will.

FYI about deductions: You can deduct student loan interest (or at least a portion of it depending on your income) when calculating your AGI on the 1040A return, using the worksheet in the instruction book - or have Turbotax or the tax preparer do it for you.

However charitable deductions can only be taken if you itemize instead of taking the standard deduction after you calculate AGI. The standard deduction will be $5,950 (single) or $11,900 (married filing jointly) for 2012. You would have to donate more than that in 2012, or have other payments you can itemize (mortgage interest, real estate taxes, sales tax, large out-of-pocket medical/dental expenses) that total more than the standard deduction to benefit from that.

I've never paid anybody to do my taxes, but my boat partner (the guy I co-own a boat with) is a banker and financial whiz kid. Every year I buy him a case of beer and he does my taxes with me. Last year he found an extra $400 that Uncle Sam said I was entitled to. I would have had no idea I could get that money.

I can't speak for the quality of any local tax service business, but I'll tell you if you have an uncle/aunt/cousin/neighbor/yoga partner/fishing buddy etc etc who knows tax stuff, if might be worth asking them for a hand.

America has the most complicated tax laws on planet earth, and asking an expert for help is rarely a bad idea.

I use Turbotax and it's totally worth my while because they can import all my misc 1099s and stock information from my brokerage and other interest-bearing accounts with 1 click. It costs 25 bucks to do this.

A super basic Turbotax filing is free. If all you have a 1040 and student loan interest, I'd happily recommend it (or the IRS's free efile website).

Unless you earned income in other states, you don't have to file a state tax return, which is what makes Turbotax free. They will file your federal taxes free then charge you for state.

You should deduct the student loan interest from your taxable income. It's 1 easy form. I don't know if it's going to make a difference, but it's easy and probably smart to report.

I used to send all my tax stuff to my dad's accountant to get my taxes done and it was a nice thing in the short term but a minor hassle in the long run because they'd put that $200-ish bucks to work and make up a ridiculous tax return that occasionally came back to haunt me when I needed to provide it to someone for something big financially and they would start to ask questions that I didn't know the answers to, because I wasn't doing my own taxes.

Overall, I suggest doing your own taxes. It's not that hard once you get the basics and this is coming from someone who hates forms, has zero interest in the financial world, and has no patience with the government in general.

But this year is the first year I've ever had to file for an extension so I feel your slacker pain :)

Joanne Ort (ortcpa.com) does accounting for my girlfriend as well as other friends of mine. She is awesome.

Deduct your actual cost, including sales tax - see Publication 561, Cost or Selling Price of the Donated Property. You are never allowed to take a deduction for money you didn't spend.

It's a good idea to save the original receipt for donations like this, especially if the value of donated property is over $500; then you need to fill out Form 8283.

As a dependent, your standard deduction is limited to the larger of $950 or your earned income plus $300 (but not more than $5800 for 2011). Anything over that, assuming you don't have something to deduct like the student loan interest deduction, would be taxable income. You are not eligible to take an exemption or the earned income tax credit as a dependent.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p929/ar02.html#en_US_2010_publink1000203773

Also I'm assuming you are not married, have dependents of your own, and that any education credits you might qualify for are being taken by your parents on their taxes.

I'm not exactly sure what the tax brackets are for 2011. For you, anything over $5800 up to about $14,300 will be taxed at 10%. If you make $14,300 you would probably owe $850 in taxes for 2011.

Follow the instructions on the IRS site here:

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96623,00.html

With an LLC, you can structure the entity to avoid double-taxation, as LLCs are often treated as pass-through entities by the IRS. However, an LLC can elect to be treated under different sections of the tax code, with different tax ramifications.

An attorney should be able to easily determine how your LLC is treated under the tax code. Then, if you need help to prepare and file taxes, a CPA could do that for you.

It also sounds like you are concerned with maintaining the liability shield of the LLC. This could be a concern if you fail to capitalize the LLC adequately or mix personal and business funds. However, a taxpayer might report LLC income and continue to limit liability - if the LLC follows correct business practices.

An attorney can advise you how to limit your liability and correctly report income, based upon your specific circumstances.

All are 501(c)(3) so donation to the individual charities is tax deductible. Donating to this should also be.

Persons who have earned a minimum of $400 in self-employment earnings must file Federal taxes. This includes contracting income from outside sources.

(from IRS website)

I'm not a tax lawyer or accountant, so I'm not qualified to give you advice on this matter, just sharing my experience.

You as a taxpayer are responsible for keeping track of your income and reporting it, even if the company that paid you didn't create a 1099 form. The law is pretty clear about that.

However -

I've done some bookkeeping for small nonprofits, and if non-employees were paid less than $600 a year we never created 1099s for them or reported it to the IRS. The amount is determined by the IRS, and employers are not required to report payments to the IRS if they don't exceed $600 total per calendar year. I was told by our CPA that the responsibility is on the taxpayer to report the income if it's less than that.

It's likely the IRS would never find out if you "forgot" to report that amount, and you could not report the income and not pay whatever the taxes would be. (You should keep in mind that this would be tax evasion, even on a small scale.) I've been paid "off the books" for quite a few small odd jobs in my life, didn't report the income, and haven't gotten audited - yet. I've mostly been around poverty line income and don't itemize deductions.

If you "forget" to report it, you might want to consider making a donation to any group that provides services to those in need, just to make up for that tiny amount of your tax payment that would have trickled down to the social service providers through the feds.

I've been claiming 2 on salary for years and always break even or owe a tiny bit (<$100) each tax season. I'm firmly in the "screw giving the IRS an interest free loan by overpaying" camp.

You know withholdings are totally optional as long as you don't have a history of tax problems. If you really want, you can ask your employer to not withhold anything and do your own taxes at the end of the year.

If you take this seriously, be prepared to write a check for 15-20% or so of your total yearly income before April! If you don't, you will owe more than you can pay, get penalties, be put on a payment plan with the IRS that could turn into a garnish of your paycheck in a worse case scenario, and you'll probably have paycheck withholdings forced onto you for being bad at taxes.

OMC is right. Increasing exemptions increases your take home pay by decreasing the amount that is withheld to offset your tax bill.

Typically you take 1 exemption for yourself.
+1 if you have a spouse filing jointly.
+1 (or more) if you have a mortgage.
etc. based on any other tax deductible items you will have.

If you have been getting big refunds in the past then your exemptions should be higher than they were before. If your refunds have been minimal then you has the correct exemptions and should leave it as it was. The worksheets tend to err on the side of getting you to over withhold in my experience.

An increase in the number of excemptions from witholding leaves more money in your paycheck... but it also means less money is being held back to over your taxes when it comes time to pay them.

A decrease in the number of exemptions means the govt will hang onto more money so that that pool will be available to offset your taxbill when you file.

At least, that's how I understand it.

I'm no tax accountant but it's in the general news (NPR today) that even the IRS is confused about the new law and people filing that way are getting notices that they have improperly filed.

Also it is unclear whether you MAY treat property as communal or whether you MUST treat property as communal.

Based on that I think you can file as you always have for this year and talk to a tax person so you are ready for next year.

We use Mark Long at Meyers Associates. He does a great job on ours (I am a dependent of my commission earning, business-expense heavy, property owning, Domestic Partner, you-can't-do-this-with-quicken, mess) and they are on cap hill.

I wouldn't think an employer's address would cause any problems, because employers move all the time. The only thing in that vein that might send up a flag is an incorrect employer ID number which would make a match-up harder for the IRS.

See if the Feds reject your e-file first (they probably won't), and then just wait to see if you have any problems with them later (I firmly believe you won't). They'll mail you a letter if they need clarification.

I wouldn't bother with an amendment. Those are for adjustments to income, for information relevant to the amount of money you earned and/or the tax you owe (or don't), or for some change in your personal information. An employer's address wouldn't have a bearing on any of those things.

Good luck!

Hi, I work for H&R Block and happened to see your post. Yikes! Sorry to hear about all the mailers. You can opt-out at: http://www.hrblock.com/privacy/optout.html?disp=3 or you can call 1-800-HRBLOCK, select option 2, and one of our agents would be happy to assist. All the best!

Contact them directly and tell them you want your name removed from their mailing lists. I would recommend either recording the call or sending them a certified letter with return receipt notifying them of said request.

If you continue to receive unwanted mail from them after requesting to be removed, and you can prove that you've requested to be removed, they are legally liable and you can file suit against them for damages.

My favorite year-end tax moves are to make sure to pay my property taxes and sell any of my individual stock holdings where I have a loss.
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