How to Save Money by Doing Your Own Taxes

When you go to a doctor’s office for the first time, you have to fill out a new patient intake form which includes things like your first and last name, address, phone number, medication history, surgical history, diagnoses, etc.

Do you pay someone $200 to fill in this information for you? Sounds pretty ludicrous, no?

However, people pay hundreds of dollars for someone else to do their taxes. For most W2 employees, doing your own taxes isn't much harder than filling out a new patient intake form.

Now I know a 1040 looks daunting, but you don't have to fill in this form or any form. The tax filing software does this for you. Your CPA or EA also isn't filling out the 1040 manually. They are just entering values in fields, and the software spits out the IRS forms. The billion dollar tax preparation industry tries to make this seem really complicated, so you don't even attempt to do it on your own.

But won't their care and attention be better than me doing it on my own?

They are doing dozens a day; you're just another number in the grand scheme of things. I assure you - no one cares about your money as much as you do.

We are fast approaching the tax-filing deadline, which falls on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. I am surprised by how many people do not know about FreeTaxUSA.com. I use this website to file my taxes annually. In my opinion, their web application is easier to use than TurboTax and other commercial Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tax preparation software. Most importantly, it costs $0 to file federal taxes, and about $15 to file state taxes (or $0 if you don't have to file for state taxes if you live in Nevada, Texas, Florida, etc.) I usually buy their audit support, which ends up being $7. If you buy or sell stock, have real estate (for personal use or rentals), or buy and sell cryptocurrencies, this is all included in their $0 filing.

Yes, that's right; I paid $7 to file my taxes this year. I'll be treating myself with the hundreds I saved from not using TurboTax.

More importantly, you can fill out all of the same information in TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA and see if it lines up before you file. If you're afraid of making errors and doing it on your own, you could do-it-yourself on FreeTaxUSA, and NOT file. Then take your forms to a tax preparer and see what their refund is. If their refund matches the one you got, you’ll know that you did it correctly. This way, you'll feel a bit more comfortable if you decide to do it on your own next year.

This post is NOT being sponsored by any entity, including FreeTaxUSA. I'm just hoping you learn a few things about taxes by making an attempt to DIY and save a few hundred bucks.

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Disclaimer: The article above is an opinion and is for informational/educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice. The author has taken care in writing this post but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of this information.