Went to do my taxes and wanted to send it in as quickly as possible. So I decided to do them online to be faster than sending the forms via snail mail. I spent a few hours answering all the questions and just as I was about to finish a message came saying that they are waiting for a form from the IRS and they will email me when I can finish. They expect it will be in another eleven days. Funny thing is I can find the form on the IRS website. I’m probably going to do my taxes by hand this year and send it in via snail mail. .
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Why the rush?
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It’s my money and I want it now!
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What is the missing form?
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I already filed with Turbotax (download/cd product) 2 days ago and accepted by the IRS. Not sure what your holdup is.
8606 IRA stuff. I’m sending via snail mail first thing Morning
Even in years when I get a refund, I always wait until early/mid-March to file. Too many times I’ve gotten corrected forms from my brokerage accounts and a couple of times have gotten a corrected W-2 from my employer. Getting my money a month sooner is not worth the risk of the hassle of having to file an amended return.
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I thought paper filing adds more than a week to the refund timeline when compared with e-filing anyway? Is that only later in the year?
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If you use IRS free fillable forms like gwraigty and me, you can file online on Feb 8 and it all happens very fast, for free.
Here’s the list of available forms for free online filing; 8606 will be up 2/8:
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Might one of you guys review FFF? I’ve never heard of them, tempted to try in lieu of Ttax.
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Just download the form from the IRS website and use PDF-XChange Viewer to fill it out.
gwraighty and I both mentioned the IRS site over in the tax software thread. As I mentioned there, every year I posted about it on FWF but there was never much interest and I do not understand why.
Here’s the website: IRS Free Fillable Forms
Anyone can use it, regardless of income. It includes almost all forms, certainly all the forms I’ve ever used. It’s fast. You can pay or get your refund electronically, as part of the filing.
Unlike commercial software, there’s no Q&A, just the forms. You have to do your own taxes, following the instructions (which are also available online). It’s like doing your taxes with pencil and paper except it’s online. Personally, I much prefer this as I can see much more easily why I am paying the amount of tax I owe, how the different pieces interact, etc.
For some reason, people, even those on these finance forums, seem leery of doing their own taxes. If one has complicated business dealings, having a CPA do it may be necessary. For the vast majority of us, however, who file 1040 and some schedules and a handful of forms, it’s not that hard to do your own taxes. Just take your time and read the instructions. And do it for free.
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Yes, you could do that, but you can’t file online with that version. If you wait until Feb 8 and use the free fillable forms, you’ll file much faster than if you file via snail mail.
Thanks UncaMikey. I agree, not sure why this didn’t catch on more at FWF.
Do they do all business taxes too, or just personal? Fantastic that both the forms and the filing are free.
The thing I’ve liked about Ttax is that it allows me to run simulations based on how I elect deductions, depreciations, etc. fairly easily. I’m not sure how much more challenging it would be to do something like this by comparison…
Don’t forget that you have to do your state separately if you choose to do the free fillable forms from the IRS. That alone is reason to use a tax filing program, in my opinion.
Agreed meed18, except for those of us who don’t have a state income tax 
My state has free online filing.
Thanks to @UncaMikey for getting to this.
I’ll just add that even someone who has used software for most of their tax filing over the years, shouldn’t find it too hard to give the forms a try. Using last year’s tax forms as a guide helps the process quite a bit.