It’s really annoying. Basically, you get a W-2, which is a record from your employer about how much you earned, how much in taxes you’ve paid, etc. You load that into some software, and it walks you through the rest. The whole process takes like 30-45 min, and many software programs charge (FreeTaxUSA doesn’t, so that’s nice). And right when you think you’re done, you have to do your state tax return, which is simple, but still asks you questions.
It’s unnecessarily complicated. Here’s what my income looks like:
regular job income
bank account interest
Roth conversions - basically make pretax retirement funds into posttax retirement funds
That’s it. All three report to the government, so they have all the info. The only time I’d had something the government doesn’t is if I sold something via classifieds or started a lemonade stand with my kids or something.
It’s really annoying. Basically, you get a W-2, which is a record from your employer about how much you earned, how much in taxes you’ve paid, etc. You load that into some software, and it walks you through the rest. The whole process takes like 30-45 min, and many software programs charge (FreeTaxUSA doesn’t, so that’s nice). And right when you think you’re done, you have to do your state tax return, which is simple, but still asks you questions.
It’s unnecessarily complicated. Here’s what my income looks like:
That’s it. All three report to the government, so they have all the info. The only time I’d had something the government doesn’t is if I sold something via classifieds or started a lemonade stand with my kids or something.