Question on taxes...

[mrchapel]

As a college student, are there any special tax advantages I can take? I usually just do a simple efile online, but I've heard from others that I'm missing out on some tax breaks. Would I be best seeing someone at an HR Block firm or other tax houses? Thanks for anyone who can assist me!

 

[skalogre]

You don't have to use an advisor. Frankly they are overrated - very often they are little more than glorified seasonal employees that don't have as much knowledge as you think. Modern tax preparation software can easily match most cookie-cuttter tax preparation places. On the other hand, as a student, there may be some benefits - but that is with the assumption that you will itemize your deduction; and to do that you must have a larger deduction when itemizing than the standard deduction. You'd be surprised how difficult that is sometimes, especially if you don't have a family, mortgages and lots of investments. If you are really concerned do what a coworker of mine does - he uses Turbotax for the Web to work out what the numbers should be (without paying for the filing fee) then goes to HR Block to see what they find - if there is a disrepancy he makes sure HRB explains why that would be the case. Oh and don't forget; if your income is under a certain amount you could very well be covered by the government's joint program with some software companies for free tax filing

Edit: My coworker's reasoning is that by doing that he can hold the tax place liable for any mistakes rather than he having no recourse if he makes a mistake himself. Personally I don';t see that as being an issue but hey, it works for him

 

[skalogre]

IRS Free File

 

[tad]

Kind of a late response on this one, but since I just did this myself I thought I'd pass it along:

You can get the answers to questions like the o.p. had if you fill out a 20 question survey using the web-based e-file package over at taxbrain.com. Beats the snot out of any of the other tax prep things.

Cheers,
Tad