Investing General Discussion

I'm sure theres some good reason yall havent mentioned it but we've used HR Block online since our taxes were simple to the time theyve become much more complex, and I havent had any problems with it. No support at all but the software is fine.

I'm obsessively DIY but can't imagine doing the excel + manual entry thing. Its not a question of doing the math, we're all doing the math, its a question of gathering up all the right fucking forms and figuring out which numbers they want where. The people who design tax forms were not human, they were lizard people from the negative dimension who feed off human suffering.

Software like HRBlock or TurboTax just translates it into human and makes it easy to put the right numbers in the right places. But if theres some better option I'm all ears, sure can't pretend I've tried them all.

Kiroy said:

You're a fucking idiot if you're a 5%-1% taxpayer and don't use any means necessary to get your money back.

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I take every fucking deduction possible to keep the government's greedy ass little hands out of my pockets. I switched my company to a sub chapter S this year and lowered my salary by $64,000 that I will later take out in tax free dividends. I will personally have to pay the business taxes, but it will help lower my overall tax burden.

Side note: Taxation is fucking theft. I might see it differently if the government wasn't completely fucking inept at handing money.

Sanrith Descartes said:

I own two businesses with a partner and my own consulting company. I put all this together after taking early retirement from ATT. My wife owns her own bookeeping/tax company. My partner also owns other companies I am not an owner of. For all of the companies we use Marcum. The companies I partner with aren't large (3-5m in annyal revenue combined). The ones I don't own are much bigger. Sucks to be me.

My consulting company I use mainly when a client of my wife's wants business consulting outside of accounting/tax. I do 10 or 15 consulting jobs a year. I assist my wife during tax season so I do a fair number of returns Feb - Apr.

I am the first to admit I'm a dick. But I am not a liar. Anyone in this thread has seen me post my portfolio, my trades and my fuckups. I come off as a "know it all" because I am old, educated and have an IQ above room temperature. I know a lot of shit because I have done a lot of shit in my Boomer life.

Tldr: Dick = Yes. Liar = No.

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I think I would get along with Sanrith Descartes quite well. I don't mind someone being a dick as long as they are a respectable dick, and I think Sanrith fits that description.

Sanrith Descartes said:

Why pay? Assuming your IQ is above 70 and you have a simple w2 and nothing else just use free software like FreeTax USA or something similar. If you IQ is sub-70 I apologize and keep using HR Block.

The majority of people.doing taxes at HR Block aren't accountants. They took an online course and got certified on the software. They just follow the prompts screen by screen. Just like you can do.

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Its more complicated than that now, schedule C etc for a couple small businesses. But I will look into FreeTax.

Estimates of my IQ depend on the person doing the estimating and vary widely in my experience.

We've stayed with HRBlock because its easy and started very cheap then got slightly less cheap as our situation got a little more complicated. Still vastly less expensive than paying a tax preparer. I can't understand the rates they charge, the process is just not complicated enough to pay someone 500-1000 for it at this point.

can’t remember which try-hard was on about excel, but it comes down to one simple thing. My time is valuable. Well worth paying for Turbo Tax to figure out all of my deductions and save myself looking up ever year’s new obscure rule changes and tables.

Punch all of my info in and the software specifically asks if any situations in my life have changed or new ways to save, etc.

Who here honestly has that much free time to hand jam all of that shit and look up every new tax law change and nuance every year?

As this is the investing thread, I’d figure most of you have the $80 or whatever it costs to pay up. Fuck the trade import software alone saves countless hours, if not a day or two of entering my trades in form 8949.

But by all means grab that pencil and calculator and waste your life. For what reason? To brag to some random Internet forum about it?



It’s the same as any other service you pay for as you get wealthier. You’re paying to save time. It’s not that I can’t clean my own house or do my own gardening, but I happily pay someone else their time for that.

CPI hot. (no shit)

Markets selling a bit on the news. SPY giving up the 100D could make for a retest back to the 20D support.

We've been waiting for that "transitory" moderation for well over a year now. Fed is going to have to come out swinging to put a lid on this. Wage price spiral is a real threat at this point.

Iceland pulled a 75bp hike this week. Fed wouldn't have the balls for that.

Blazin said:

Decent number of countries around the world have already started hiking, we clearly should have started hiking last year. Janet Powell's fecklessness is what concerns me. The Fed is so dragging it's feet to respond. It's stupid to say you feel it will moderate, if it moderates then you can slow increases but that has little to do with what you should do right now.

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100% agree