Friendly reminder - Taxes due by tomorrow (July 15th)

I thought that maybe I'm not the only one (applies to Americans only, of course) who may procrastinate with my taxes. So a friendly reminder that the deadline is tomorrow for your taxes. I just did mine with Turbo Tax, it costs me a pretty penny to e-file for both Federal and State taxes ($110) but I guess its worth it for the convenience.

Did mine in April. So I'm set. Still gotta love how most e-file websites advertise lower/free prices but it only applies to Federal not State most of the time. Mine was $40.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
I thought that maybe I'm not the only one (applies to Americans only, of course) who may procrastinate with my taxes. So a friendly reminder that the deadline is tomorrow for your taxes. I just did mine with Turbo Tax, it costs me a pretty penny to e-file for both Federal and State taxes ($110) but I guess its worth it for the convenience.

For the convenience? WTF. You have to pay to electronically file taxes in the US?
I do all ours online, using the gubberment website, for free.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
For the convenience? WTF. You have to pay to electronically file taxes in the US?
I do all ours online, using the gubberment website, for free.

They go by earned income when when we e-file. So if you make over a certain amount you have to pay more, or file for free. Don't forget we have Federal & State taxes.

Each has a certain income required to file for free.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
For the convenience? WTF. You have to pay to electronically file taxes in the US?
I do all ours online, using the gubberment website, for free.

No, I could have done it for cheaper, but I got the Turbo Tax deluxe version. I like that, as it allows me to download/get a copy of my tax returns at any time, and I also get an online document storage to use for other important documents.

The costs of that version is $60, and then to also file electronically for my state taxes costs an additional $50 fee.

You have to understand that Turbo Tax does all the taxes for you, it is a very good program. All I had to do was enter where I worked and it retrieved all my income details and tax withheld (w-2's) for me, and then filled out my taxes automatically, after I answered various tax-related questions.

I have to pay through the nose for my tax software because 90% of my income is as an independent contractor. I think it was $169 this year. I've been using TaxAct the past few years because I got tired of TurboTax trying to sell me something every 5 seconds.

All my income is as an independent contractor, and my wife is a teacher. Her tax is automatically dealt with by the system, and I file online.

I used to own rentals and paid an accountant to deal with the extra complications. That's the only time I've had to pay some sort of fee. No states taxes, cos, err, we don't have states. I guess having a country with the population of a US city makes things a lot simpler

Originally Posted by Shagnak
All my income is as an independent contractor, and my wife is a teacher. Her tax is automatically dealt with by the system, and I file online.

I used to own rentals and paid an accountant to deal with the extra complications. That's the only time I've had to pay some sort of fee. No states taxes, cos, err, we don't have states. I guess having a country with the population of a US city makes things a lot simpler

How many levels of tax do you have then? In the U.S. we have federal income tax, state income tax (unless you live in one of a handful of states; I pay this), sales tax (unless you live in a handful of states; I do not pay this), plus property tax and various taxes levied on a city level, mostly business taxes. In Portland, for example, we have a $35 per year "arts tax", which I pessimistically assume mostly goes to anything but the arts. Layers upon layers.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
How many levels of tax do you have then? In the U.S. we have federal income tax, state income tax (unless you live in one of a handful of states; I pay this), sales tax (unless you live in a handful of states; I do not pay this), plus property tax and various taxes levied on a city level, mostly business taxes. In Portland, for example, we have a $35 per year "arts tax", which I pessimistically assume mostly goes to anything but the arts. Layers upon layers.

Umm… Income tax - which includes things like individual income tax and withholding tax (where the scumbags tax your bank account interest, etc. Kinda like taxing your money twice).
Then there's Goods and Services tax (GST). That's 15% across the board, and if you're an independent contractor who earns below the threshold ($60,000?) you don't have to worry about it.
Then there's city rates (basically property taxes, for your water supply, arts, etc etc) and district rates (for flood protection, roading, etc etc).

There's probably more than this but I've never been rich enough to have to worry about it.

I think he forgot the sheep tax!! NZ has so many sheep they need to tax them since there's more sheep than people in that country!!!!

??? So fixed submission days? Sounds like a recipe for overloading & crashing systems.

The Australian Tao Office (free) online submission system crashed one day this year through overload. Why? Well, tax can effectively be submitted from 1 July to late September. However, COVID has placed financial stress on many people so a very high proportion of people submitted on day one to receive any refunds ASAP. Voila!

Having lived in White Plains, NY and had to pay taxes etc. there the total % was within 1-2% of my Australian taxes and associated ’fees’. And while the banana bender (looking at you @Corwin) and others will disagree, we live in Australia’s best city - Melbourne!

Yeah, where there's more Covid than anywhere else combined in the entire country; where every other state has forbidden travellers to arrive from and where you get 4 different weather systems nearly every day!!

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
I thought that maybe I'm not the only one (applies to Americans only, of course) who may procrastinate with my taxes. So a friendly reminder that the deadline is tomorrow for your taxes. I just did mine with Turbo Tax, it costs me a pretty penny to e-file for both Federal and State taxes ($110) but I guess its worth it for the convenience.

Why don't you use free tax services ?
Aren't all of these paid ones just making money for no reason ?

https://news.avclub.com/hasan-minhaj…ebs-1844218707

Hasan Minhaj launches TurboTaxSucksAss.com, a real website to make filing taxes less awful

Perhaps the most egregious of all the misleading tax prep websites is TurboTax, which has a documented history of advertising “free” filing products that then hamstring unsuspecting customers into ponying up extra cash for bells and whistles they don’t actual need to submit their tax returns.

But, despite them having been called out, there’s very little anyone seems to be able to do about TurboTax’s misleading greed goblins. Hasan Minhaj succinctly laid out the infuriating truth during a recent episode of Netflix’s Patriot Act, which also included a pretty nifty announcement: The creation of TurboTaxSucksAss.com, a website that delivers on the name.

Over here there is only one way to file for taxes and that is through the government website and using their online software, which is all free.
The whole process has been simplified quite a bit over the years and we now even get tax forms where most of the stuff has already been filled in from information the tax office has received from our employers and banks, which does need to be checked as not all information is always 100% correct, but most of it is. Simplifying it has also reduced possibilities for fraud, I suppose.

Just be happy you don't have to have attorneys do your taxes. Now there are some fees. It's wonderful when a family has to pay more taxes than Apple or Amazon.

I also have a TurboTax subscription ‘+State’ so you pay upfront, and then only pay a small fee to do the state filing for NY.

I had done my taxes back in February, but thanks to the way the most recent tax law specifically targeted certain states with punitive changes (REALLY trying hard to steer clear of politics) … I ended up having to pay an added amount to Fed Gov’t which was basically offset by the State. So I got the refund and let it sit collecting interest for a few months until having to write a check this week

Originally Posted by Myrthos
Over here there is only one way to file for taxes and that is through the government website and using their online software, which is all free.
The whole process has been simplified quite a bit over the years and we now even get tax forms where most of the stuff has already been filled in from information the tax office has received from our employers and banks, which does need to be checked as not all information is always 100% correct, but most of it is. Simplifying it has also reduced possibilities for fraud, I suppose.

Same here. Very handy, I'd say 95% prefills automatically and it's completely free.

Originally Posted by Corwin
Yeah, where there's more Covid than anywhere else combined in the entire country; where every other state has forbidden travellers to arrive from and where you get 4 different weather systems nearly every day!!

Details, details….
Changes in weather mean you never are without a topic of conversation!

(I have lived in Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle (Australia), Merimbula, Adelaide, Darwin, Port Moresby, Perth, and Woomera for significant periods so I’d argue I have some comparison for livability.)

Originally Posted by Hurls
Details, details….
Changes in weather mean you never are without a topic of conversation!
…

Well, not necessarily. From a Norwegian Commercial for Drygolin Extreme house paint:

Translation: "What is there to talk about when the weather no longer worries you" and "In Drygolin weather, Drygolin is what counts".

a pibbur who thinks the thread is already sufficiently derailed to post this. Who prefers Butinox. And who gets his income/tax estimate pre-filled (correct English?) from the government, and only has to examine/correct the result.

PS. I'm going to get some pop corn for the upcoming flame war. DS.

PPS. Maybe I saw this here…EDIT: Yes, I did.[/I]" DS.