I'm glad for my online tax preparation app
This has been a stress-free April 15 for me. That hasn't always been the case.
I remember those days of yore when I would be part of the crowd in a long line of cars pulling up to the Post Office to drop off my return a few minutes before the midnight cutoff. In fact, our local main post office would have workers out at the street with baskets so passing drivers could toss their returns in without even pulling into the parking lot.
I don't know if they are still doing that. You see, since I've been filing online, the long lines at midnight are a thing of the past for me.
Procrastinator that I am, I actually got two of the three returns I have to do filed on the 14th, and the last one on the morning of the 15th. And it was so much easier than the days of pen and paper. The app picks up needed data from last year's return automatically. It does most of the math, and automatically checks for errors.
Still, I did spend all day on doing my taxes, and to my mind, that's totally unnecessary. All the data I need is already somewhere on a computer, either my PC or somewhere in the Cloud. Why should I have to spend more than a few minutes to organize that data into a return?
Here's what I'm really looking forward to: I'll just say, "Siri (or Alexa or whatever my robot assistant's name is) prepare my tax return," and about ten minutes later I'll have checked it and sent it on its way. I'm confident it won't be long before that scenario is a reality.
Image Credit » http://pixabay.com/en/taxes-tax-office-usa-america-flag-646509/ by geralt
Comments
FourWalls wrote on April 16, 2015, 12:14 AM
No, the Post Office doesn't offer the extended hours and standing outside to pick up the tax refunds at the stroke of midnight services anymore. Part of it was considered a waste of money (people got paid overtime for doing that), and part of it was because more and more people, like you, were doing their taxes online, reducing the need.
allen0187 wrote on April 16, 2015, 12:24 AM
Good for you that your tax preparation app is working. We have an online tax filing here in our country as well but guess what? It has bugs galore and you can never get pass the home page! Inefficiency at its finest!
Soonerdad3 wrote on April 16, 2015, 12:31 AM
I am so glad I have been using H&R Block for more than 20 years to get our taxes done and we usually are done before the end of February.
SoundNFury wrote on April 16, 2015, 12:51 AM
I have been doing my taxes online for several years. It makes it so much easier and if you use the same program from year to year, you can import data from the previous year. Makes tax time so much less stressful.
RonElFran wrote on April 16, 2015, 11:38 PM
Back in those bad old days it was a service I really appreciated.
RonElFran wrote on April 16, 2015, 11:41 PM
I can understand inefficiency in processing refunds, but to allow inefficiency in collecting the taxes... what can your government be thinking of!
RonElFran wrote on April 16, 2015, 11:43 PM
I've never used a tax prep service, and I'm convinced I probably missed some deductions, especially when I was doing it by hand myself. But I'm hoping the tax software is smarter than I was.
RonElFran wrote on April 16, 2015, 11:43 PM
Exactly! I wouldn't want to go back to the old way.
Soonerdad3 wrote on April 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
I too worry about missing deductions and that is one of the reasons we started using a tax prep service.