I have to admit that there is a side of me that enjoys conspiracy theories. I remember that one of the very few things I enjoyed at my first engineering job, which was in the dungeon basement of the Layton City Building, was that we could only get one station on our little radio (this was back in the day before internet radio- I think) and on Fridays that station (talk radio, of course) did Conspiracy Theory Friday. The show host let people call in and rant and rave about conspiracy theories. After a minute of talking, the host would make a fool of the theorists and I would get a good chuckle. I also enjoy the stories Dr. Lawton told us of his friend's Cadillac that got 80 mpg and the light bulb that lasted ten million hours.
Well, I found my own and so I thought I better warn the people.
Many of you will be compiling your taxes over the next few months. In our case, due to having ten kids and buying our first house, we will be receiving a very nice refund from the federal government. I did our taxes by hand because then I better understand how it all comes together and works out. I will try a computer program to check my results before I submit.
In spite of the nice federal return, when I did our state taxes online at utah.gov, I owed a considerable amount of tax. As I was filling out the online program I noticed several issues with the program itself that made me uncomfortable. I have always used the state's online program in the past, but this year I found a huge error on entering your standard or itemized deduction. So I researched the tax code and did the state forms by hand, and was able to cut down what we owe by over 80%. I still think it is strange that we get so much back from the federal government, but have to pay the state. I guess it is relative to typical family size, but at this time I think I would rather pay a little extra tax than have a fourth child under the age of 3. I bet Megan even more strongly feels the same way.
Also, according to an editorial I read in the paper today, Utah has a balanced budget whereas many other states and especially the federal government don't. So maybe it is a good thing that we are more significantly taxed in Utah.
Anyway, in the midst of a thousand topics, my conspiracy theory is that the state-promoted online tax submission program called TaxExpress is a rip-off. It does not accurately factor in your deductions and is too simple to allow you to apply for numerous avaliable tax credits. The state tax code is a little funky compared to the federal code. I think Utah could use some fresh blood to renovate and fix numerous grammar erros in a lot of the legislative areas.
Like I said, I did my own taxes by hand and saved 80% of what the state program required. I built my own spreadsheet program to calculate the whole tax form. Let me know if you would like a copy of the tax form to do your own or to compare your answers with other programs.
What is the best tax software in your opinion?
