TurboTax ? For Tom Copeland

[llove530]

Doesn't Turbotax calculate your time/% for you once you enter in your deductions? Or do you have to figure that out first and then enter?

Help!!

[cillybean83]

I use Turbo Tax and it prompted me to enter it but it didn't do all the math for me, it did help a lot though. Go to turbotax.com and you can do a free trial run and see if it works for you.

[TomCopeland]

Using Turbo Tax (or any other tax software) can be a problem if you don't know what you are doing. There is a place on the software to enter your hours and space numbers to calculate your time-space percentage. However, this is only applied to your house expenses, nothing else.

Here's the problem. Let's use supplies as an example. You buy $400 of supplies that are 100% business. You buy another $1000 of supplies that are used for business and personal purposes. Let's say your time-space percentage is 35%.
There will appear a screen on Turbo Tax that asks how much you claim as an expense for supplies. The answer is $750. However, Turbo tax won't help you figure this out. You need to know what your time-space percentage is and to do the math before entering the total into Turbo tax.

I would suggest filling out your tax forms on paper and then enter your numbers into Turbo Tax. Or use my Family Child Care Tax Workbook and Organizer to fill out your forms.

[llove530]

Thanks Tom! I want to order your tax book but right now it is backordered!!

[TomCopeland]

Yes, my 2010 Family Child Care Tax Workbook and Tax Companion should be available by January 17th.

[Sharon.Riley]

Originally Posted by TomCopeland

Using Turbo Tax (or any other tax software) can be a problem if you don't know what you are doing. There is a place on the software to enter your hours and space numbers to calculate your time-space percentage. However, this is only applied to your house expenses, nothing else.

I would suggest filling out your tax forms on paper and then enter your numbers into Turbo Tax. Or use my Family Child Care Tax Workbook and Organizer to fill out your forms.

Tom,

It is my experience with the tax programs online, that they can only be used in "interview mode." That mode can not handle the complications of Home Child Care taxes and they can't switch to "forms mode."

[TomCopeland]

I meant that a provider can do all the calculations first on paper and enter them on a paper version of the tax forms. Then they would be prepared to properly answer the questions when using Turbo Tax or other online programs, just like any other user of the software. I'm not sure what you mean by interview or forms mode.

[Sharon.Riley]

OIC. Thank you for the clarification.