Tax returns

[Carl the Llama]

Tax returns? I thought that was only for people who were self employed?

[Mirage]

Nope. It's for anyone who's paid more in taxes than they needed to.

[Carl the Llama]

How do you guys know if you paid to much? How do I go about filing a tax return, I have always thought I paid to much tax, but then I earn quite a bit.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I've been getting money back since I was 18.

[Carl the Llama]

Well, I guess it has been building up and up over the last 10 years so it could be quite sizeable xD

[Mirage]

For me, it's be automatic, I have no idea what you have to do. It varies from country to country. I have no idea if you can reclaim tax returns from many years back. Maybe you should ask someone older than you from where you live.

[Pheesh]

I use an accountant and I got back about $2100 last year. I doubt it'll be anywhere near that amount this year though.

[fire_of_avalon]

Also, I hate preparing tax returns, and most people who do their own by hand are idiots.

So you're saying that paying someone extra money to do something you can easily do yourself, and taking an even greater loss, is idiotic?

Hmm.

[Jiro]

I don't pay tax because I don't earn enough

[Mirage]

Yeah, some people have it easy!

[Pike]

I always just do mine on TurboTax online; they can import all your info from previous years if you've done it through them before and it makes it super easy mode.

Because I don't earn very much, I usually get in the ballpark of $1200 back. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. When I lived in Montana we had state taxes and I would get a couple hundred of that back, as well; here in Washington we don't have those (and have things like sales tax instead )

But yeah if you're me, and have my awful luck, the money doesn't go very far because some emergency will happen or work will suddenly cut my hours by half for a couple months or something and then byebye tax refund! But I guess it's much better to have that cushion there when those emergencies happen, than to not have it there.

[Slothy]

Also, I hate preparing tax returns, and most people who do their own by hand are idiots.

So you're saying that paying someone extra money to do something you can easily do yourself, and taking an even greater loss, is idiotic?

Hmm.

No, I'm saying if you do your own AND do it by hand you're an idiot nine times out of ten. The majority of people (at least in Canada) don't have a return that is complicated enough to justify having a professional do it, but even with simpler ones there's the potential to miss something that a cheap tax program will literally fill in for you, and you'd pay less than you would to have someone do it for you.

Trust me when I say that every accountant out there has seen a tax return that a friend or client filled out by hand at some point and asked them to look over and laughed at them. So when I've seen people make simple errors that anyone who isn't a professional accountant can make that would never happen if you did it electronically, I feel pretty secure in saying people who do it by hand are idiots. Maybe you won't screw it up, but why even take the chance? Especially when stupid little errors can cost you hundreds if not thousands depending on your income, or end with an audit not working out in your favour.

And if you have anything more complicated than an income slip from your employer and a few simple investments (ie: you have a lot of capital gains/losses, own a business, have children with disabilities, stock options and more because I could keep going on for a while here), it might be best to have a professional take a look at it at some point. Taxes can get extremely complicated very quickly and I would never trust myself to be up on all of the rules around more complicated sources of income than simple employment income, or interest and dividends on investments, or even all of the tax credits and deductions which are available as well.