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> It’s pretty simple to do your own taxes unless you have your own business and partnerships and whatnot. IDK about that. As a non-resident alien for tax purp
by d1zzy 6y ago
> It’s pretty simple to do your own taxes unless you have your own business and partnerships and whatnot.
IDK about that. As a non-resident alien for tax purposes for a couple of years I couldn't use any of the existing software (TurboTax, etc). I even tried to contact a tax accounting firm like HRBlock and they had no idea about things I needed to file that I discovered on my own reading the IRS publications. So I did the taxes on my own and every time it was the most painful thing happening that year (yes, that likely means I lead an otherwise stress-free life), it took 3 weeks at least spending most evenings a few hours making little progress on it each day. And at the end of it I never felt very confident about it and I likely left on the table possible deductions.
But if there's one thing doing that helped with is appreciate how easy and painless is to do it as a resident alien with something like TurboTax (takes a few hours instead of weeks) and it helped me understand the terms and instructions of some of the more complex issues that you may have to deal with even with TurboTax.
- throwawayboise 6y agoHRBlock is not a tax accounting firm. They are a service firm who hire people to sit in retail storefronts and key your info into TurboTax (or their internal equivalent). You need a real CPA with a tax focus if you have "complicated" taxes.
- shortstuffsushi 6y ago> As a non-resident alien for tax purposes It seems like you are (were) a good candidate for a more comprehensive service for sure. Perhaps a better wording would have been "it's pretty simple as a resident and (W-2) employee," which encompasses the majority of those filing, and who probably don't need a service like TurboTax or an accountant.