Filing Our Taxes Online with TurboTax

We’ve been using TurboTax to handle our family’s tax needs for the last couple of years and we’ve been very happy with them. Last year I used the online filing option and it was perfect for us. We could login to account work from where ever we were and continue our tax filings at our convenience.

Easy to Use; Easy to File

Since we’ve used turboTax before, when we logged into our account to get our taxes started, the program already had much of our basic information (such as name, address, and jobs)  in. It was a matter of adjusting some details, the biggest one was becoming parents last year.

I’ve found TurboTax extremely easy to use with its interview approach to getting information in for your taxes. It’s a completely guided walk through - the questions were clear and getting the data entered was quick

Getting the Paperwork in Was a Snap

With having to get our family’s taxes done along with my LLC, some may think it took a lot of time to get the numbers into the program, but it was a snap with TurboTax. As we receive the paperwork, I enter into the system, including:

• W-2s from your job(s)
• 1099-DIV: Dividends
• 1099-INT: Interest Income
• 1099-MISC: Miscellaneous Income

Most of our expected forms have already came in, but I’m still waiting on a couple more 1099s to arrive so we can finish it up. Once we complete our federal, TurboTax can easily transfer our information from the federal tax return to my state’s return.

TurboTax Scours To Find Tax Deductions and Credit You Qualify For

TurboTax really combs through the all the possible deductions and credits for your return including your house, family, cars, charitable donations, medical expenses, college and education, and more.

Tax deductions reduce your taxable income, not the tax burden that you owe. Tax credits lower your tax bill.

TurboTax’s Live Community – A Resource Worth Checking Out

Turbo Tax did a great job creating and managing the Live Community. Live Community is a wonderful resource that allows you to get the answer you need on many common tax questions. Tax experts are moderators, checking to make sure the answers are correct so you’re given up to date information.

We had to use it a couple of years ago when we were looking to take the homeowners’ tax credit. It was so easy to find our answer and we were able to go ahead and file properly.

Which Turbo Tax Edition Fits You?

While Home & Business is the best fit for us, it isn’t the online edition TurboTax has available. Here are some quick descriptions to help you decide on which edition will fit your needs. 

• Free Edition: If you have a very simple tax return to file, TurboTax Free Edition is the way to go.
• Deluxe: Many people will find this a suitable option to take care of their tax deductions and credits for families and homeowners.
• Premier: This edition is designed for those who have numerous investments or if you own rental properties.
• Home & Business: Entrepreneurs with either sole proprietor, consultant, contractor or single-owner LLC business will find this edition more than capable of handling their business.
• Business: If you have a corporation, partnership or multi-member LLC, TurboTax can help you optimize your tax return.

We’ve been happy with TurboTax and how easy it is for us to file using their services.

2012 TurboTax Deluxe Giveaway

Now to the best part – Couple Money would like you to file your federal taxes for free. I am giving away 2 copies of TurboTax Deluxe Online. Enter the giveaway to win one of the copies (if you win, the code will be emailed to you)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The contest ends February 9, 2012 (11:59 PM Eastern). I’ll be drawing the winners on February 10, 2012 and will contact them. I need a valid email so I can contact you if you’re one of them. If chosen, please claim your prize by Monday February 13, 2012.

Disclaimer: I’m paying for my own tax preparation and the giveaway copies are provided by TurboTax, so if you win, please tweet them a thank you I’m also a contributing blogger at TurboTax, so please check them out to see if they can help you with your taxes this year.

Photo Credit: 401K

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• Save on Baby Expenses
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The latest figures from Credit Action reveal that the levels of personal debt were down in 2011 from the level experienced in 2010. While this is good news, debt problems still plague many in the UK and every day 331 people are declared bankrupt or insolvent. Personal debts have gone down but are still in the trillions of dollars. People wishing to avoid having to declare bankruptcy often take advantage of an IVA. An IVA is an Individual Voluntary Arrangement that allows individuals to make repayment proposals to a creditor using the services of an Insolvency Practitioner.

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement Can Help Your Finances

Taking advantage of an IVA is a way to preserve your credit score and help you avoid a blight on your financial record. The IVA was established in 1986 as part of the insolvency act. An IVA has been used successfully by many people to get control of their debts.

Besides using an IVA there are other things that can be done to help repay debt and avoid having to file for bankruptcy. One of the most important things is to keep up with payments. Credit cards, especially, should be paid down as quickly as possible. This is because credit cards are often the debt that carries the highest interest charges. Switching over to a lower interest card is a good way to make inroads into paying off the balance.

Missed payments are noted by credit reporting agencies and each time this happens, your credit score goes down by a few points. Having a low credit score makes it difficult to get loans such as mortgages and car loans. If you do obtain a loan while your credit score is low it means you will only get sub-prime loans which come with sky-high interest rates.

It may be possible to consolidate the most expensive debts into one large loan since this is likely to have a much lower rate of interest than debt such as credit cards. When the debt situation is dire, the only loans that should be taken out are the ones to pay off existing high-interest debt. If you are having trouble making monthly payments to your creditors, it is essential to call them and let them know.

It may be possible to arrange for lower monthly payments or to have the interest on the account frozen. There is another option that allows you to freeze the account for an agreed upon period. During this time you could pay only a small fee, such as £1 per month, until your finances have been sorted out.

Free Credit Counseling

If your creditors are not receptive and you are still struggling to pay your debt, there are charities that can help. Consumer Credit Counseling and asCredit offer free and confidential advice and they can be contacted via Freephone. When you contact these charities they help you through a range of solutions that are appropriate for your level of debt.

This may include a DMP or Debt Management Plan that is paid directly to the charity or another company that has arranged this plan for you. They will then distribute the payment amongst your creditors in agreed upon proportions. All these services should be free of charge to you and you should never have to pay a fee for this type of debt advice. Taking these types of actions should help get the debt under control before it is too late.

Thank you again for subscribing to Couple Money! Here some recent popular topics from the site:

• Save on Baby Expenses
• Pay Down Debt Faster
• Making More Money
• Giving Back
• Mortgages and Real Estate
• Retire Rich

January has been a fun month – plenty of visits from family and friends (coming to us, which is much easier than traveling than visit all of them). We’re so happy that they came and caught up with us. I hope we can do this more through out the year.

As I was winding down for the evening last night, I checked our bank accounts and noticed our buffer shrank a bit – that’s our cue to keep an eye out on what we spend. Looking ahead, it seems like we’ll be more budget conscious over the next month.

Upcoming Expenses in February

February may possibly be an eventful month – besides a family trip we may also (finally!) get to refinance the house (see below). With so much to do, we’ll be keeping a close eye on our budget. We’ll have to avoid using the joint account for unnecessary expenses if we want to keep a buffer in place.

Visiting Our Friends in the Mountains

Next month we’re traveling to spend some time with our friends. That means we need to make sure the car is ready. It’s about time for an oil change, so I’ll schedule that as soon as possible. It also means spending a day cleaning the car out just to get out stuff packed in there!

It also means saving a bit for gasoline and food for the trip. It’s nothing major expense wise, but just something to keep track of for the budget.

Refinance the House?

I mentioned last week that we were a bit stuck with one of the lenders on getting an estimate for a refinance (ironically with our current lender). We did hear from them (not the original person we were working with, someone else) and it looks like they weren’t even going to try and compete. I kind of disappointed as I wanted to stay with them – I would’ve prefer having one less account to track. However when the gentlemen kept telling me that 5% was such as a great rate and refinancing to 3.25% wasn’t really going to save us on monthly payments (of course – we’re looking at long term!), I figure he wasn’t willing to even look at getting us a decent deal.

Fortunately another offer came in and it was for 3.125%.   It looks as if we’re going ahead with the refinance deal (after we finish reviewing the paperwork tonight and asking a few questions). While that means saving money for the family in the long term, it’ll be a tight fit over the next month.For one thing we have to decide if we want to put more money down for the closing or if we want to roll some of that into the new mortgage.

Status of the Car Replacement Fund

Depending on what we do with the refinancing, the car replacement fund will be affected somehow. If we decide to go ahead and take care of everything at closing that could mean pulling some money from our savings and pausing on the funding the car replacement fund.

While the car we’re using is uncomfortably small for us now, it’s not an emergency. If we have to wait a bit more before buying a roomier family car, then that’s fine with me.

Thoughts on No Spending

I think we should talk a bit more tonight and see where we need to adjust and put a Mint alert on spending. What’s the longest you’ve gone without spending on discretionary items? What are your plans for next month?

Photo Credit: dustydean

Thank you again for subscribing to Couple Money! Here some recent popular topics from the site:

• Save on Baby Expenses
• Pay Down Debt Faster
• Making More Money
• Giving Back
• Mortgages and Real Estate
• Retire Rich

This week is a bit shorter with the round-up – we’ve had one of our dear friends over this weekend and we’ve been having a great time. I just realized that I haven’t published the review (I keep a draft version up during the week as I find and pick my favorite posts of the week), so I’m taking care of that this Sunday afternoon.

Couple Money Around the Web

Besides writing here on Couple Money I contribute at other sites as well:

• Green Panda Treehouse-> What are Investment Risks Not Worth Taking?-> I’m continuing the investing series explaining when it’s smart to pass and how to avoid putting your money in risky plans.
• Get Out of Debt->It Takes Two (Creating a Family Financial Battleplan-Part 1): I’m happy to announce that I’m writing at a Get Out of Debt in the Moving Forward section. I’ve had some syndicated posts published there over the last couple of months and I was thrilled to be asked to submit original content.

Writing over at Get Out of Debt (as I like to call it- GOOD) has also helped me get some different perspectives about how couples manage their money.

Personal Finance Posts to Catch Up On

If you have some free time this weekend and want some tips and information for your finances, be sure to read some of these wonderful posts.

• Money Mistakes Young Families Make When Financing Their First House via Smart Family Finance
• Should Parents Pay for College? via Married with Debt
• How Much Do We Spend On Our Pets? via Boomer and Echo
• What is Tax Evasion and How Could it Affect You via Free From Broke
• High Deductible Health Plans and Major Medical Bills via Five Cent Nickel
• Bragging About What You’re Going to Buy is Super Lame via Len Penzo

Please have a wonderful weekend with your family!

Thank you again for subscribing to Couple Money! Here some recent popular topics from the site:

• Save on Baby Expenses
• Pay Down Debt Faster
• Making More Money
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• Retire Rich

David Vladeck director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and DOJ Assistant Attorney Tony West today conducted a conference call I attended to provide additional information regarding an announced settlement with collection company Asset Acceptance. In the settlement Asset Acceptance agreed to pay the second largest fine ever against a collection company for alleged violations.

Asset Acceptance is one of the larger debt buyers. They purchase and collect old debt that had been previously placed with other entities but problems with accuracy and data create a situation where the data is less reliable, yet it was being used. As a debt is passed from one entity to another the quality of records deteriorates when people with similar names and address are involved. Erroneously people may be contacted about debts that never belonged to them at all. And that’s a problem.

In some states the applicable statute of limitations will prevent suits on this old debt but in others a partial payment or an agreement to repay will restart the clock on the ability for a debt collector or debt owner to sue. Debt buyers and debt collectors sometimes are not clear about this and can trick the consumer into reviving an old debt by agreeing the debt is theirs or making a partial payment.

The FTC and DOJ alleged Asset Acceptance had little or no evidence to support validation of some debts they were attempting to collect on and that Asset Acceptance did not take reasonable steps to validate. They stated Asset Acceptance continued collection efforts anyway. And reported to credit reporting agencies.

The action against Asset Acceptance creates a framework of what is acceptable.

1. Time Barred Debt / Statute of Limitation Debt: If a collector calls demanding payment Asset has agreed to disclose to consumers that it is time barred and cannot be collected via a lawsuit.
2. Partial Payments Reviving Debts: Many debt buyers accept partial payments to reset clock without informing consumers this will happen. Asset has waived it’s right to partial payment revival of stale debt.
3. Collection agencies park debt on credit reports to force consumers to pay off the debt to get rid of it even if it is not accurate. The thought was that a consumer applying for a loan or new credit and who discovered an old collection debt might just pay it off. Asset Acceptance has agreed to give consumers notice when it reports to credit reporting agencies.
4. Reliability of Information. If a collector or knows or should know the information is not accurate and the consumer has provided reliable information proving the information is not accurate, the collector must take reasonable steps to confirm the accuracy of the information before collection efforts. What those reasonable steps are was not made clear.

Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Tony West said, “Going forward we have a framework for the entire debt collection industry to follow.” This should be a message to debt collection industry that they will be held accountable, “if they don’t act fairly and responsibly.”

The FTC complaint against Asset Acceptance alleged Asset was:

1. misrepresenting that consumers owed a debt when it could not substantiate its representations;
2. failing to disclose that debts are too old to be legally enforceable or that a partial payment would extend the time a debt could be legally enforceable;
3. providing information to credit reporting agencies, while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the information was inaccurate;
4. failing to notify consumers in writing that it provided negative information to a credit reporting agency;
5. failing to conduct a reasonable investigation when it received a notice of dispute from a credit reporting agency;
6. repeatedly calling third parties who do not owe a debt;
7. informing third parties about a debt;
8. sing illegal debt-collection practices, including misrepresenting the character, amount, or legal status of a debt; providing inaccurate information to credit reporting agencies; and making false representations to collect a debt; and
9. failing to provide verification of the debt and continuing to attempt to collect a debt when it is disputed by the consumer.

@GetOutOfDebtGuy

Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free debt consolidation help and debt relief advice for people looking for answers.

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• Save on Baby Expenses
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