Working From Home and Taxes

I hate taxes. I really hate them. Hate’s a strong word, I hate them. But I hate going to jail more, so I pay my taxes. This is my advice with taxes and I hope it helps you out. Please note that I am by no means a tax expert or consultant, this post is just my experience and recommendation for how to relieve some of the awfulness of tax season.

This post contains affiliate links/ads, see my disclosure for details.

Before having kids I was a high school math teacher. I like math, numbers, spreadsheets, etc. My husband is also a math geek so between the two of us we feel pretty confident in our number crunching abilities. Year after year we filed our own taxes. It wasn’t too complicated at first, but then I started making all these crazy businesses and working from home. I formed an LLC, opened Etsy shops, traded stocks, and things started getting complicated. But I’m smart, he’s smart, taxes are just numbers and being organized, right? Completely wrong. We spent hours and hours and hours trying to get our taxes right. We would each separately fill out the paperwork and then see if our final results matched. They didn’t. So then we’d compare lines and see what we did differently. It drove us crazy! One year I called the IRS at least a dozen times to ask questions (which I’m not sure if you’re supposed to do or not) and they couldn’t answer my questions and then would tell me I needed to contact a tax professional. I told them they’re a tax professional and I am contacting them, but that wasn’t helpful. My husband and I are smart, we can figure this out, right? Maybe. Hopefully. I think we did it right in the past (crossing fingers), but it wasn’t worth it. The stress, the time, the worry if I did it right or not was awful. A couple years ago my husband finally talked me into trying Turbo Tax. The first time we used it I still filled out the paperwork by hand while my husband did it on the computer and we compared results. Turbo Tax found deductions, work from home write-offs, and was hours less work. It saved us money and time. Since then we’ve never looked back and taxes aren’t nearly as stressful. I’m so glad I relented and put my pride aside.

If you’re reading this and hoping for some amazing tax advice – this is it – it’s too hard and not worth your time to try and become a tax expert year after year, especially if you’re self-employed. When you work from home there can be home office write-offs, mileage deductions, independent contractors, etc. that can be written off and save you a lot of money on your taxes. It’s worth it financially and emotionally. I wish I would’ve realized it 10 years ago instead of 3 years ago and that’s why I’m sharing my experience with you today.

I personally use Turbo Tax so I feel very comfortable recommending them, but you might want to shop around so I have a few other places for you to give a try. Here’s a bit of information to get you started.

Turbo Tax can be used for free if you’re a first-time filer or a student and using the 1040EZ/1040A. So even if your taxes are simple, I’d still recommend them since it’s free and easy! Their deluxe plan for homeowners, charitable donations, and other writeoffs is $34.99 right now. Well worth the time and headache they will save you! Then there’s a premier package for those who have investments, rental properties, etc. for $54.99, and the self-employed or small business plan is $89.99. These prices are for federal filing and state is an additional fee. For me one of the biggest selling points is that they’ll pay any IRS penalties if your taxes aren’t 100% accurate. So that should relieve some of your IRS agent nightmares. Another helpful feature is if you use them year after year they know what your previous returns look like and can give you reminders like, “you used this write-off last year, would you like to use it again?”

When we first decided to try Turbo Tax we just used their website for free without actually paying them to file. We wanted to see if they’d save us money or find something we missed. You can go to their site and fill in the numbers without paying for anything and it will show you what your return would be. So go ahead and checkout their website, fill in some numbers and see if you like it before you buy. Give Turbo Tax a try by clicking here.

E-File also offers free 1040EZ filing, online support from qualified tax consulants, and are a bit cheaper than Turbo Tax. Currently if you use the coupon code SAVE24, the prices are as follows: $18.99 for the deluxe package which is a typical 1040 with a mortgage, dependents, or retirement income. $34.95 for premium which is business supported. These prices are for federal filing and state filing is an additional fee. Check out E-File by clicking here.

Liberty Tax differs from Turbo Tax and E-File in that they have physical locations in addition to their online services. Their prices are competitive and they’ll help you figure out which package you need. Here’s their current prices: $10.47 1040EZ, $13.97 for Basic 1040, $27.97 for business owners, $48.97 for investors. These price quotes are with a 30% discount they’re currently offering, so prices are subject to change. Take a look at Liberty Tax here.

This tax season instead of spending hours and hours reading confusing legal tax nonsense, save yourself the headache and leave it the professionals. Your time is better spent working on a new website, getting money from ibotta, selling stock photos, or even taking a survey!