Money experts of the Beeb: My taxes have been easy in the past, single, no kids, so I just did Turbo Tax online and a standard deduction. Last year I've moved and rented out the house I bought in 2016. Now that I have rental expenses and rental income an itemized return makes more sense. I did this last year online but now that my tax situation is more complicated I'm wondering if I need to sit down with a tax person, ie H and R. What's the right move to maximize a tax return?
Stay away from H&R Block. Find a good accountant that can help you. I pay around 250 to get mine done by someone and it’s worth it. A couple of years ago I got a letter about an audit due to potential errors in a return I had, the account called, got it lined out, and I had a letter from the IRS stating everything was taken care of about 2 weeks later.
A certified accountant. H&R Block will screw you. I pay someone every year to do my taxes and its well worth it.
Fan of having a CPA myself, though my situation is fairly complex. Very nice to have someone to fall back on (who isn't a seasonal employee).
H&R Block online is pretty good and can easily walk you through rental income and expenses. As a test a few years ago, I did all three major online tax ones and H&R was the easiest and had gave the best return in terms of amount getting back. Sent from my smatrfone
Just a "me too" on the H&R comments. Using H&R is like using an "Urgent Care" as your primary Health Care Provider.
I've used TurboTax "Deluxe" package for many years, including when I owned rental property, wife ran her own business, and also Interest, Dividends and Capital Gains (and losses) to consider. It did the job pretty well for me. Always in the $35-$50 range (discounts usually available through your bank or broker). More recently, they seem to want you to upgrade beyond Deluxe for rentals and businesses, but it always handled it just fine for us. Good luck.
I've always done tax returns myself, no matter how complicated, because I wanted to understand the rules, and maintain control. I've only ever made one auditable error, and it was resolved (with no penalties) through correspondence. In 2017 we had a highly reputable CPA firm do our 2016 tax returns, due to additional complexities arising from our overseas move. It was a mistake to go outside. It cost us more than we saved, and after looking over their work I determined that they didn't do anything I would not have done. So, I'm back to doing my tax returns myself.
I have a buddy who was an accountant, now owns some other businesses, do mine. He uses one of the package software things but knows what all that crap means. I throw him some $$$ to do mine, rental income, and some other crap that makes it a pain.