Quick Tax Question

Avatar for colomom99
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Quick Tax Question
2
Sat, 01-23-2010 - 10:29am

The last few years I have done our taxes on Turbo Tax which is great and whether I did them right or not remains an open question but at least I have always received a good refund. I have heard that if you have had a significant income loss there is a deduction or tax credit or something. Is that true? I've never attempted to take anything like that because I didn't know how. We are certainly qualified. In 2007 when I was laid off our income for the second half of the year dropped by nearly half. In 2008 it was almost as bad because my freelance income was pretty pathetic. This last year my income rose a little bit but my husband was forced to take an 8 percent pay cut ( not to mention seven unpaid furlough days, grrrrr). We have seriously lost income for three years.

I was wondering first if there was such a thing as a tax break for income loss? And then whether I should take our taxes to a professional to do them to help maximize our deductions? The other option is for me to try to do them myself with Turbo Tax and then take the last three years return to someone for a review which should be cheaper. Any thoughts?

Jenny

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Sat, 01-23-2010 - 11:17am

We've always had someone do our taxes.

Avatar for sohappilyme
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 01-23-2010 - 11:19am
We use HRBlock At Home (formally Tax Cut) and they have a Premium option which looks for those types of deductions for you (including mortgage changes and investment issues). I suppose the safe answer is to take it to a pro, but many of them use versions of the same software you can buy for home use.

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FLINGING DEBT:
Sarah