TurboTax $80 to file your tax return for you and your parents?
Want a rapid refund of your money and happen to have started doing your taxes with TurboTax? Then be prepared to shell out almost $40 for your Federal return and your state return. Now on first glance you might think you get to send in your returns and 4 of your friends for that fee. Oh no, the limit is on the software not the charges. If you purchase a retail box, get a CD in the mail, or do a download from the Turbo Tax website, you get charged per return.
Typical scenario - you do your returns, federal and state $36.00. Mom or your mother in law comes over to get your help since they don’t know this stuff, and you have the computer. Bham another $36.00, now up to $72. Forget about it if you have a child living with you who has to file individual returns because of their tax situation, that could bring it up to $108.00 in just filing fees. When you add the cost of the software, you could be out $150.00 this year. And you still have to do all the work of typing in the information and filling out your taxes.
From the Turbo Tax website - (by the way, go find this on the TaxCut website and let me know what you find)
How much does eFile cost?
Online: E-filing is included in the cost of your purchase (federal or state) when you purchase a TurboTax Online product. Federal and state online products are paid for separately.
CD/Download: E-file is an additional charge—$17.95 per eFile, for up to five federal returns and $17.95 per eFile for up to three state returns**—when you purchase a TurboTax CD/Download product.
Be sure to ask yourself if you need the refund this quickly, or if you can just send it in the old fashioned way. And just to remind you, there are a ton of free or much lower cost online ways to file your taxes. Just go the the official website at http://irs.gov and look at their list of e-file partners.
What ever happened to things electronic getting cheaper and simplier? This is an electronic process, where all the e-file providers do is receive your file, verify it for some basic checks, then send it to the IRS in the correct format. They then hear back from the IRS and let you know what they get told on your return. Sounds like the exact same process from 5, 10 and 15 years ago. Where is the cost savings? Here is where it goes - into people who buy a bundle from the major tax software houses which includes the software and a voucher for electronic filing included. They don’t get to see the price since it is included so they never shop around.
Do you need the return so fast that it is worth $40, $80 or more?
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