TurboTax Self Employed HSA WTF?

I assume you are in the deductions portion and not the income portion of the site?

^^ I agree ^^

The contributions to the HSA are tax decutible, not the expenditures

OP is in the section that state the distrubutions fom the HSA were for medical expenses, otherwise those distrutions from the HSA not for medical expenses would be added back as income.

Why do you do your own taxes rather than having a CPA do them for you?

Quote from afratki : The contributions to the HSA are tax decutible, not the expenditures OP is in the section that state the distrubutions fom the HSA were for medical expenses, otherwise those distrutions from the HSA not for medical expenses would be added back as income.

Yep, that's it. I see it come off on line 25 of the 1040.

Quote from Brian1 : Why do you do your own taxes rather than having a CPA do them for you?

I have always done my own taxes. No one cares more about how much I have to pay but me. I track my expenses all year and painstakingly enter them on the correct lines of my sch C. I have seen tax returns filled out by a CPA where they just lump expenses all on one line. Very sloppy and unprofessional. My father in-law used a local tax preparer. They made mistakes, then charged him to file an amended return. And don't even get me started on those crooks at H&R Block!

Quote from RHCCapri : I have always done my own taxes. No one cares more about how much I have to pay but me. I track my expenses all year and painstakingly enter them on the correct lines of my sch C. I have seen tax returns filled out by a CPA where they just lump expenses all on one line. Very sloppy and unprofessional. My father in-law used a local tax preparer. They made mistakes, then charged him to file an amended return. And don't even get me started on those crooks at H&R Block!

I gotcha. If it works for you, keep doing it.

It's just well worth the money for me to pay my accountant to do my taxes because A. I don't understand our ridiculously, absurdly, over-complicated tax code enough to do my own taxes, and B. I don't want to overpay due to my own ignorant error.

It is pretty simple for most salaried folks. What you earned - what you already paid in X the tax rates - the standard deduction and credits for kids = what you owe or get back.

The complex stuff happens on the schedules.

Quote from RHCCapri : It is pretty simple for most salaried folks. What you earned - what you already paid in X the tax rates - the standard deduction and credits for kids = what you owe or get back. The complex stuff happens on the schedules.

Ah, see, I don't take the standard deduction - I itemize. That plus other things outside the business makes my taxes much too daunting for me to even attempt to do.

I still fill out the Fed sch A to use on my Oregon tax since the Oregon standard deduction is less than what I paid in mortgage interest. That is something many of my fellow homeowners did not know. The rest of the sch A is like fagetaboutit because you need to have expenses over a percentage of the AGI. If you use one of the larger national brokerages you can import your trading activity right into TurboTax for sch B. For business, rental and farming income, your should already have the figures on your books and just need to fill out the forms. An accountant adds $ for each form he fills out, even the "for your records only" worksheets, so a return with several schedules can easily run you over $1000. I'll spend a weekend infront of the computer to save $1000, you bet!

Quote from Brian1 : Ah, see, I don't take the standard deduction - I itemize. That plus other things outside the business makes my taxes much too daunting for me to even attempt to do.

So do I and I scrapped my CPA this year and did TurboTax and I'm glad I did. No, it's not as easy, but at 1/4 the cost I'll take it. Maybe I'm a nerd, but TT is actually kind of fun to use if not 1st grade simple.

Plus I know a lot more about the in's and out's now than I did when I just handed my stuff off and let someone else deal with it. And for the future, I'll be more organized due to the fact that scrambling at the last minute is a serious waste of time. I'm kind of old school and keep paper ledgers for most of my stuff, but this year I might just go with Quicken which will make taxes (Intuit owns TT and Quicken) a breeze next go around.