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Started my taxes today.....
Last night, I installed TurboTax Deluxe. This has been the fifth year in a row that I've used the product. It's worked well for me so far, so why switch to H&R Block's Tax Cut software?
This year, they (Intuit) decided to add a little something to prevent or to seriously curb software piracy. According to the accompanying literature, I can install it on any number of machines I choose, but it will only transmit or print from the machine on which I registered or activated the software. What happens if I upgrade a hard drive or have to take my computer to the shop between now and the time I finish my taxes? (This happened to me three years ago.) What then? Do I have to buy another license to install it on a secondary machine? That really bites.
Ed Foster, writer of "The Gripe Line" column in InfoWorld has nothing but bad things to say about this latest scheme. Here's what he had to say in his January 17th column. And here's what he had to say a few weeks later, in his February 14th column.. (Warning: On Netscape 4.79, most of the text on these two pages initially appears as boxes.)
I partially agree with him. Pro: if software is to be treated like a book (which is the best software licensing model I've seen), then there shouldn't be any pressure for secondary owners to cough up the cash for a software license. Book publishers don't demand that I pay them the balance of the full price of a book, when I bought it for less than the retail price at Half Price Books or any other used bookstore I frequent. Con: Passing the software to a friend does cost the software company a potential sale, and ultimately, revenue that can be used to pay its programmers. As a programmer myself, I like to be paid for my work, so I can pay my bills.
At lesat it's not as bad as Microsoft's licensing and activation scheme, which locks you into using the software on a single computer, no transfers or upgrades allowed. Sieg heil!
Anyway, back to taxes. I'm pretty good about keeping financial records and tax information. (More about that in a future LJ entry.) The problem is, trying to find the records when I need them. During the first round of information gathering, I found my W-2 form, my wife's W-2, a few 1099-INT forms, letters from charitable organizations I gave to last year, and medical expenses. (I own a condo, so I itemize.) I was missing a few 1099-INT forms (as it turns out, I didn't make enough interest on the accounts to warrant the bank sending them), so I had to dig out my bank statements for December 2002 to find out how much I made. I also had to go back and add a 1099-DIV I forgot about when I went through the first time. But what stopped me cold is that I'm missing a 1098 form for a home equity loan. The loan changed hands during the year -- my loan was sold to another bank -- and I only got a 1098 form from the second bank. I didn't get one from the first bank. Now I'll have to call them and find out how much interest I paid so that I can deduct it. And they weren't open today, so I'm stuck until I get that number.
Remember that $600 tax rebate us married couples got in 2001? I had to send it all back last year; that's exactly how much I owed. Hopefully I'll get some money back this year. I'd better.
Intuit also came out with a nifty gadget this year: a TurboTax Tax Organizer. It has 8 accordian pockets, sticky labels, and three slash-pouches to hold copies of my tax return, a book on tax tips (included), and a tax schedule and checklist (included). There are even slots for three CD-Rs. Yeah, it's a little on the pricey side ($15), but if I had a few of these and rotate among them every few years, I won't have to panic if I'm audited; eveything's in one place.
This year, they (Intuit) decided to add a little something to prevent or to seriously curb software piracy. According to the accompanying literature, I can install it on any number of machines I choose, but it will only transmit or print from the machine on which I registered or activated the software. What happens if I upgrade a hard drive or have to take my computer to the shop between now and the time I finish my taxes? (This happened to me three years ago.) What then? Do I have to buy another license to install it on a secondary machine? That really bites.
Ed Foster, writer of "The Gripe Line" column in InfoWorld has nothing but bad things to say about this latest scheme. Here's what he had to say in his January 17th column. And here's what he had to say a few weeks later, in his February 14th column.. (Warning: On Netscape 4.79, most of the text on these two pages initially appears as boxes.)
I partially agree with him. Pro: if software is to be treated like a book (which is the best software licensing model I've seen), then there shouldn't be any pressure for secondary owners to cough up the cash for a software license. Book publishers don't demand that I pay them the balance of the full price of a book, when I bought it for less than the retail price at Half Price Books or any other used bookstore I frequent. Con: Passing the software to a friend does cost the software company a potential sale, and ultimately, revenue that can be used to pay its programmers. As a programmer myself, I like to be paid for my work, so I can pay my bills.
At lesat it's not as bad as Microsoft's licensing and activation scheme, which locks you into using the software on a single computer, no transfers or upgrades allowed. Sieg heil!
Anyway, back to taxes. I'm pretty good about keeping financial records and tax information. (More about that in a future LJ entry.) The problem is, trying to find the records when I need them. During the first round of information gathering, I found my W-2 form, my wife's W-2, a few 1099-INT forms, letters from charitable organizations I gave to last year, and medical expenses. (I own a condo, so I itemize.) I was missing a few 1099-INT forms (as it turns out, I didn't make enough interest on the accounts to warrant the bank sending them), so I had to dig out my bank statements for December 2002 to find out how much I made. I also had to go back and add a 1099-DIV I forgot about when I went through the first time. But what stopped me cold is that I'm missing a 1098 form for a home equity loan. The loan changed hands during the year -- my loan was sold to another bank -- and I only got a 1098 form from the second bank. I didn't get one from the first bank. Now I'll have to call them and find out how much interest I paid so that I can deduct it. And they weren't open today, so I'm stuck until I get that number.
Remember that $600 tax rebate us married couples got in 2001? I had to send it all back last year; that's exactly how much I owed. Hopefully I'll get some money back this year. I'd better.
Intuit also came out with a nifty gadget this year: a TurboTax Tax Organizer. It has 8 accordian pockets, sticky labels, and three slash-pouches to hold copies of my tax return, a book on tax tips (included), and a tax schedule and checklist (included). There are even slots for three CD-Rs. Yeah, it's a little on the pricey side ($15), but if I had a few of these and rotate among them every few years, I won't have to panic if I'm audited; eveything's in one place.
no subject
Good thing I picked up an HP-12C financial calculator so I can learn cash flows and amortization to properly determine the taxable amounts. Interest on back pay would be taxed differently than back pay itself, I think.