It is the time of the year when many families are starting to get their information ready to prepare their 2015 Federal and State Income Tax returns.
I have friends that have paid large amounts for a CPA firm or tax preparation service to prepare their tax returns in past years. Is that really necessary? In cases where a person has a business that necessitates the preparation of a Schedule C to accompany their form 1040, possibly they should hire a professional to prepare the return.

If a couple has only W-2 Forms that come from their employer or employers, interest income, dividend income, and retirement income with the appropriate forms received, then possibly they should be preparing their tax return themselves.

As an example if someone wants great software to prepare their 2015 Federal and State Income Tax returns, they should consider TurboTax or some of the other personal income tax software that is available at Sam’s, Costco, Walmart, etc. The reason I mention those three outlets is that they usually discount the online price. TurboTax can be purchased totally online.

I found a source five years ago on eBay that offers TurboTax at a really large discount.
You might want to look at eBay and Amazon and see what is available for tax preparation software from them.

You need to know what version of TurboTax you need. There is a version for taxpayers that only have W-2 Income, retirement income, interest, and dividend income. There is a business version that has the forms and instructions for preparing the return which includes Schedule C for small businesses.

Partnership, Sub-Chapter S, and Corporate tax return software is also available if taxpayers want to do those returns on their own.

One of the disadvantages of going to a tax return preparer is they want to sell you support coverage for an additional Fee, a processing charge including an extremely high interest rate for a loan for immediate refunds.

Let’s say a family has been paying a tax preparation service $100 past years for preparation of a simple tax return. For approximately $50 they could purchase TurboTax for Federal and one State or some other tax software and have it for more then one tax return. Families with working children will need to file returns for them to get their refund money back. TurboTax has a tutorial that flows throw the return, it checks for errors and reports them to you. The return is not ready for submission until the errors are corrected. Then when the return is finished it can be electronically transmitted and you can print a copy of the return for your records.

When you purchase TurboTax you are allowed one state return which you select when you begin preparing the State Return after you have finished the Federal Return.