stupid but effective Turbo Tax. I have read the myth about a free e-file for a couple of years, tried again this year. This is a very simple return, 3 total W-2s, for the wife and myself. Our AGI was low enough, below $84k, to qualify for a "free efile", so I fell for the sucker bet and tried a free e-file last night. It is my turn to get the large refund. Sure enough the IRS would not accept my return, yada yada, PIN this whatever. My wife who works overnight comes home and jams the numbers in Turbo Tax, and it almost works the first time, but she transposed a number so IRS would not accept the return. I knew this would not be a free return but because I am the professional procrastinator supreme, I had little choice but to accept her inputting the numbers. One good thing, we made the numbers hum, as they numbers came out exactly the same.
When it came for Turbo Tax to help her fix her transposition mistake, they were available on the phone, which is more I can say for my cheapo allegedly $0 cost return place. So, the charge is $137.51 to file a fairly easy return and I get the big refund.
This is the last year I will have been on the dark side of income tax refunds. Forever and ever I did the correct thing, nailing the return within about $100 or so either way, but I got tired of the IRS bugging me, so when I came over to the dark side, they miraculously stopped bothering me.
Only about 3 to 4 years on the dark side.
I am now retired, and will have plenty of time to tinker with W-4s throughout the year. I plan to owe the IRS about $200 next year. I plan to pay with a paper check, to mail in the return via snail mail and for the return to take about 8 weeks to process, assuming they still take paper returns next year.
I guess the thing that bugs me now is that I was never able to participate in a free e-file. Oh well. Here is to retirement!!😃