I did the same thing this year

I'm also employee status, tiny mortgage, hardly any medical expenses, and getting soaked by tax prep for the last couple years.  I was nervous this year  because I made more money than I was accustomed to and didn't know if I'd have to pay in, so prior to tax time I did an online free tax estimation with turbotax.  I was surprised to discover the standard deduction gave me a better deal.  So I looked over my taxes for the last 2 years and sure enough, that's what the tax preparer used.  But since they had crunched all my itemized numbers to SEE if itemizing would net me more, I realized my whopping tax prep bill was due to the time they spend doing that.

From now on I'm crunching my own itemized numbers in advance.  This year I did my taxes online with OLT, took the standard deduction, and paid a whole $30 to electronically file both fed and state and had both refunds in early February!  The IRS website gives a list of recommended companies that will let you use their online software for cheap or free (some age/locations/circumstances restrictions apply) and that's the way I'm going from now on!

All these tax prep places have lost my business, there's no point in paying huge fees for something I can do myself, and in my experience many of their employees don't seem to be very professional or knowledgeable, in that they had to have a supe walk them through half my stuff over the phone!  I think as smart as most MTs are, we can figure this stuff out as well if not better than these so-called expets who are basically only temps.

• Question on Income Taxes and Home Office - Deductions -
  • I did the same thing this year - tired of being taken for a ride
  • Your standard deduction - - Amanda
  • Obviously this tax "expert" has never done--sm - anon
    • She did not say she was an IC - that would be a different story - - Amanda
      • true..but since she mentioned taking the --sm - anon
        • I also took home office expenses as an employee, but -- - Amanda
          • I was told this year by the lady who our taxes... - MtMommyof2
            • geeze...you can tell I am up too early this morning...sorry for the typos - MtMommyof2
        • I have always done itemization - sm
          • I'll trade your friend for my cousin - Backwards typist

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I got sick of talking to Abduleebadabaabah..

"And many tank yous for calling "company name" and how is it  I help yous?

I had one foreign guy figure out that I was on the east coast and he said, "You musta be happies with the snows, yes?"

It was August and 98 degrees.

I got shut down with that major company at least 5 times a week.  I made sure that they knew that my biggest gripe with their company was that their tech "support" staff was not even in our country.

I've been with a reputable local company for almost 12 months.  I have not been shut down once and the only time I did have to call tech support, I talked to a guy named Mike who knew that there is no snow in August. 

to pay him a cool 1 million dollars.  You can check this out at the Medquist website.   I think the CFO makes $350,000 a year, and the head of IT makes $250.000 a year.

P.S.  This does not include the perks, like expense account, car allowance, sign-on bonus, etc. 

I don't think there's any cause to get upset or defensive here.  Look it up on line...even colleges are offering courses in Ebonics!  ...well of course they are more sociology-type courses, but still, people are PAYING to learn about the why's and how's of this "other" language.

A quote from one of the sites I found:

"UT-Austin's "Introduction to the Study of African American English," teaches students that the sentence, "Nobody didn't leave" is not "mainstream English with mistakes," but rather a legitimate English dialect. "Ebonics: Myth and Facts" and "African-American English" are both offered at Harvard. Penn and UCLA also promote Ebonics as a legitimate dialect in, "Introduction to African American and Latino English" and "Afro-American Sociolinguistics: Black English," respectively."

Here's the link: http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2002/september_2002_2.html

:P

"I was told it was a "MAN" thing and everyone does it (i guess all men)"

whenever anyone takes an action and relates it to a whole gender and then tags on everyone does it....well, I guess there's your answer

Life could be a lot worse, right?  I know, but I still have no work even at a different job.  I still have no money.  My bills are still behind because my jobs have just snowballed in the past three months.  Home life is the same old, same old.  Can't get the kids to pitch in without complaining.  Still can't get them up in the morning despite moving their bedtimes back.  Can't get the husband to cut back on the budget.  His job has been really slow since Thanksgiving, too.  Christmas was the same old thing.  I wound up returning my Christmas presents again this year.  Nobody gives refunds even with gift receipts so I get to use the gift cards to buy groceries.  I don't know why I thought the new year would be any different.  It's so darn depressing.  What's the point of trying so hard when nothing ever changes?

and I am fully aware of all of the above, except the (GERD). Like the others said though, that is just probably how the account wants it done. My account wants the 2 spaces after each period though, so that is how I do it.

I personally would not worry about what other people are doing. If they are not doing their jobs right, that will be their problem. By correcting the above though, you only benefit yourself.

I would suggest entering some of those in your expander. I have bid put in to expand out to b.i.d. The same goes for q4h, expands out to q.4 h. Once you enter all those in, you won't have to worry about doing it wrong anymore. It will correct them for you. It doesn't get any easier than that. Good luck!