Doing Attending Taxes: Am I crazy?

[Ravenclaw]

We've been out of training for about 2.5 years now and have used a CPA to complete our taxes for 2 years. Before attendinghood, I always did our taxes myself. But with 2 young kids, various moves, locums in different states, using a CPA made sense. However last year, I was really disappointed in him. I did a Backdoor Roth last year and he had no idea what it was and didn't really understand why I did it. He asked about it a day before the taxes were due even though we had submitted our docs to him weeks prior. A lot of physicians here use him for tax planning and preparation, so it was disappointing he wasn't familiar with it. What was even worse was to get a bill later that included his time researching the Backdoor Roth. I complained since I was the one that educated him on the matter and their office deducted that "research" from my bill.

This year, I'm thinking of attempting our taxes on my own. I'm thinking I can look closely at our return last year and see if he did anything helpful. The only new event that happened last year is we bought a house and I know we can deduct our mortgage interest from that.

People who have BTDT, am I crazy?

[medpedspouse]

We've been out of training for about 2.5 years now and have used a CPA to complete our taxes for 2 years. Before attendinghood, I always did our taxes myself. But with 2 young kids, various moves, locums in different states, using a CPA made sense. However last year, I was really disappointed in him. I did a Backdoor Roth last year and he had no idea what it was and didn't really understand why I did it. He asked about it a day before the taxes were due even though we had submitted our docs to him weeks prior. A lot of physicians here use him for tax planning and preparation, so it was disappointing he wasn't familiar with it. What was even worse was to get a bill later that included his time researching the Backdoor Roth. I complained since I was the one that educated him on the matter and their office deducted that "research" from my bill.

This year, I'm thinking of attempting our taxes on my own. I'm thinking I can look closely at our return last year and see if he did anything helpful. The only new event that happened last year is we bought a house and I know we can deduct our mortgage interest from that.

People who have BTDT, am I crazy?

Us too. I turbo taxed until attendinghood, the move, the house purchase, etc. Since then I have not gone back. I have thought about going back to doing our taxes...I mean I am smart - riiiight? Especially since DH only gets a W2 now. However, I thought I had sent our account every.thing.he.would.need. I still have a list of things I need to send. It did not give me confidence.

[Ravenclaw]

Yes! They've had me fill out an "e-planner" along with the hard documents I give them, and the e-planner takes almost as much time as if I just Turbotax myself.

[Ravenclaw]

I am going through TurboTax right now and they've upgrade a lot since I did it 3 years ago. They are importing the tax forms from our banks/brokerages automatically.

[spotty_dog]

We tried to use a CPA our first year out, but we also did TurboTax and submitted that finished return with our paperwork to the accountant. His response, after some consultation back and forth and having him go over it with a fine-tooth comb, was that he couldn't do anything more for us than the TurboTax was doing, and he didn't bill us for his services. So okay then! We've been doing the TT route ever since.

Our situation is fairly simple though. DH is self-employed. He gets a few different 1099s from his various jobs. He has a home office (because he has no office space at work.) We have a mortgage. We have an HSA. Some capital gains/losses from the taxable investing account. Nothing else is much more complicated. The TT can handle the Roth conversion very simply, it took us a few minutes to figure it out the first year we did it, but now it's no problem (pro tip, it's a conversion, not a recharacterization, LOL.) If you have a partnership, or if you need to depreciate assets, or some other complicated things, you might still want to stick with a pro, but the DIY route isn't THAT crazy.

[spaz]

We did our own taxes for a long time until we got the farm and hubby starting being part owner of a surgery center and other more complicated things.

[SoonerTexan]

I kind of hate dealing with stock stuff in turbo tax. I don't know if I will continue doing that once we have investment stuff. It would have been very easy to make a mistake with my stock options this year and been taxed at 60% on them


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[poky]

When we moved for med school, we could tell it was going to be a complete tax nightmare (stock option sales, severance pay, unemployment, move, scholarship/stipend, half year in one state, half in another, state income taxes in both (and LOCAL income taxes in the new state), new job for me in a third state, etc., etc.) , so we hired an accountant for the first time. Up until then, I did them myself, usually completely by hand (they were relatively simple), sometimes comparing numbers to what I got from a free online tool, just as a double-check, but always filing the hand-done one by mail.

Every year seemed like *something* happened; bunch of investment rollover one year, more unemployment and new job another, a move and switch from med school to residency, etc. Plus with local income tax rules changing all the time, it was just easier to throw a few hundred bucks at someone and have them handle it.

Last year we moved, switched to 1099 pay, started investing heavily, etc., etc. There's no question of doing it ourselves. This year, we're buying a house, Tom will sign on as a full partner, we'll be opening solo 401(k)s, we're looking at maybe selling our old house that is currently rented out, etc., etc. MAYBE in a few years, when things settle down and are pretty much the same thing just with different numbers, we can stop paying someone to do them for us, but for now, it's just WAY simpler.

I can see where if you don't have confidence in your guy, it can be harder - how does an accountant who deals with lots of doctors NOT know about backdoor roths anyway?! If you haven't done anything different this year except buy a house, I'd definitely start with going off of last year's, plugging in the new numbers, and adding the house purchase in, and if you feel comfortable with how it came out, just file it and ditch him.

[MDPhDWife]

I continue to do ours via Turbo Tax. So far so good. I am really hands on with all our finances and just don't trust anyone else to do it. I will say however, I caught a glitch in the TT program this year with the property tax deduction. If I had just been clicking through the motions, we would have missed out on a 11K deduction! I called and spent over an hour on the phone with them and they corrected the program by the end of the same day.

[Deebs]

For the past four years, we used a CPA because our taxes were complicated and we were busy. About two months ago, we received a letter that we owed the IRS over $10K for an undeclared investment cash out. We had given our CPA all the paperwork, and she entered the wrong amount. There's nothing worse than unexpectedly owing the IRS five figures. I don't think I'll ever let anyone do our taxes again. Thank goodness for Turbo Tax!


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[houseelf]

I did ours until 2 years ago. There was no reason not to. Now we file in multiple states, have an LLC, and some equity and royalty issues. Have I mentioned it KILLS me to not do my own taxes? It's ridiculous. I would venture that many doc families can and should do their own taxes.

[HouseofWool]

I do mine with turbo tax. But, this year, I need to have an accountant review my business set up.

[ladymoreta]

We do TurboTax, too. Ours is W-2 and very simple, though. We'll go to a professional once we're done with debt repayment and start more complicated investments.

[spotty_dog]

We do TurboTax, too. Ours is W-2 and very simple, though. We'll go to a professional once we're done with debt repayment and start more complicated investments.

What complicated investments are you planning, and why?

[ladymoreta]

LOL, nothing big, but more than our 401k, which is all we're contributing to now.