tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318055043707993918.post4074317595760963528..comments2024-02-20T02:12:18.090-05:00Comments on THE WANDERING TAX PRO: COMMENTING ON A COMMENTRobert D Flachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06034127763662917220noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318055043707993918.post-33038744592174603752011-12-24T16:53:27.699-05:002011-12-24T16:53:27.699-05:00RDF, all the tax preparers in my area use tax soft...RDF, all the tax preparers in my area use tax software and are subject to an efile mandate. New York does not allow clients of such preparers to opt out. (See here: http://www.tax.ny.gov/tp/efile/mandate_participants.htm)<br /><br />So your suggestion of using a RTRP to prepare a paper return does not help. <br /><br />(Besides, I am not particularly enthusiastic about sharing my private financial information with any of them. The paid preparers around here tend to be located in high-crime neighborhoods. Going to one of them to have my return means exposing my financial information to the preparer, his employees, anyone who might break into their offices, AND to the third party company he uses to transmit my return to the IRS and NYS.)<br /><br />Or I could go to a CPA over in the "high-rent district," but there I could be paying for the privilege of having the data entry done remotely by outsourcing to data entry folks in India.<br /><br />NYS does offer free fillable PDFs, so I might decide to go that route, but it seems unnecessarily tedious. Yes, software has flaws, but so does my transcription. Running my numbers through two different tax programs plus a manual walk-through cross-check of the tax logic and computations seems adequate. I don't see how my retyping the information into fillable forms will improve the accuracy of my return.<br /><br />I would not mind paying the state a small "fee" of $25 for the privilege of continuing to file paper returns. I understand that it does cost them more to process my paper return, and I am willing to pay for it.<br /><br />But New York does not call it a "$25 fee," they call it a "$25 penalty." Penalty implies some degree of wrong-doing on my part.<br /><br />This terminology bothers me enough that I will probably "get with the program" and efile this year.NY taxpayernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318055043707993918.post-85886615025754358082011-12-23T04:16:40.551-05:002011-12-23T04:16:40.551-05:00This is a great post. I actually use my family’s t...This is a great post. I actually use my family’s taxes to increase our savings rate. My husband is an awful saver, and tends to spend most of what is left in his accounts after his half of the bills are paid. I’m the saver, and so am in charge of our investments and our liquid fund. I’ve always had him *increase* his withholding when he’s started new jobs. He forgets he’s paying more of our tax bill (especially since I also do our taxes). When our fat refund comes in February, he gets a little fun money, and I roll the rest into our IRA and house fund. This way, we both pay half the bills, and both save almost the same amount of money over the course of the year, without any arguments.New York Tax Filinghttp://www.stateincometaxnewyork.usnoreply@blogger.com