beckiwoo

Thanks

Thank you for the feedback.

I'd rather not go through that.

BristolUK

We're now doing five free ones each year. (I think my mother in law had to pay once when some cashing in of some sort of policy upped her "income" that year)

It's quite tempting to go into business doing it for the neighbourhood.

Novocastrian

Assuming no-one in your neighbourhood earns more than $25K.

izzi81

I used Turbotax last year, but will be trying something else this year. The software seemed a little bit temperamental at times, though I got it done in the end and did like the format. However I also resented having to pay $100 to get a version that could handle our small business income. This year I've not decided between StudioTax and UFile. As the former is free I'm thinking about giving it a go and seeing how I get on.

ChrisBan

Just out of interest, what package do people who've returned to the UK during that tax year use? I find Studiotax doesn't let me select anything other than a province for residence as of December 31st and I can't leave it blank...

JonboyE

If you were a factual tax-resident for part of 2014 you put the province you lived in before you left.

BristolUK

I don't think it's necessarily more complicated just for an income above $25k. And I didn't mean just do it for the ones that would be free.

Between us we've done UK superan income, rental income, wage only, Quebec equivalent of GIS/OAS, Canadian Superan, cashing in of whatever policy it was and a death.

It's just inputting different amounts. If it was something Joe Public was willing to do for the neighbors, just set a charge that covers the fee (or no fee) to make it worthwhile.

Send the complicated ones to johnboy.

Shirtback

There are a couple of non-profit organisations here who offer free tax return services for low-income people. I've volunteered some time on that, from time to time.

I wouldn't, for free or for pay, undertake to do someone else's return, except in the supervised circumstances above. I have no qualifications other than knowing how to read & fill in forms . I might, for friends, sit beside 'em & "hold" their hand through the process.

scrubbedexpat091

Wouldn't be hard in my complex, 50% of the buildings are low income units, and the others are geared to low income but not qualified for BC Housing...

I'd venture a majority make under 25,000. Not that I'd want to do their taxes.

dishwashing

So what is good for weird stuff

BristolUK

We did ours today on TurboTax - as usual.

We were able to go through jointly - husband and wife - and I don't remember that option existing previously. Took a bit longer than one return at a time but less time than two separate ones.

Not without a hiccup on the rental side of things - just takes a few extra minutes experimenting with answers to get the right result.

Cross referencing is a bit weird. The rental details were input under me and then we saw the details attached to my wife. That's good, we thought, this time it has duplicated and attributed half each of everything.

But then the summary showed it as her only.

We amended something and then it put half twice for me and nothing for her.

Another amendment and voila! There it was, half each. Job done.

dishwashing

Thanks for the yarns, folks. Turbo sounds reasonable - I heard it has gone up this year if you have rental or whatnot, but still much better than H&R!

izzi81

hmm so I've tried Studiotax, and as someone who has various self-employment incomes it's not very clear to use.. I worked through the wizard and it didn't ask me anything about being self-employed, which means I have to put in the info on its electronic versions of the paper forms. Not so keen on that

I've been looking at another free version, SimpleTax, which has a much nicer online interface, but it has boxes to fill in that I'm really not sure of. I don't really want to pay out $110 to Turbotax again so I might try UFile this year... maybe I still need the hand-holding of a piece of bought software lol.

BristolUK

Yes, you start off with 'Standard' and then it says Standard no longer includes rental but for this year the upgrade was free. Still free for incomes up to $20k, so unlikely to pay next time too.

BristolUK

That rate surprised me. I see it's Home and Business on CD. The on line version is $50, although that's per return so if there's more than one to do, I suppose the $110 works out better in total.

I suppose that for two people where only one is s/e, the $50 online version and an ordinary one could be less than $110.