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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (60919)	3/1/2006 8:35:40 AM
From: tom pope	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 206325

Paul, I hate to lay a cliche on you, but there is good news and bad news. TurboTax is very good, but it takes time getting used to. Its basic m.o. is to walk you through an interview. Assuming it has asked all the right questions, you will have a complete tax return at the end of the process. I prefer to get all my data well organized and enter it directly into the appropriate forms, and this of course is where familiarity with the program becomes important - I know how to handle margin interest without going through the interview because I did it last year. So, there is a learning curve, and I predict your first year with the program will prove frustrating. Once you get over the first year hump, though, there are no insurmountable problems, and it will remember your data from the preceding year to make data entry a lot easier - e.g. just fill in the box for interest income from your bank without entering the bank name again.

To: Paul Senior who wrote (60919)	3/1/2006 9:17:10 AM
From: ChanceIs	Respond to of 206325

>>>your dislike of using "professionals" for tax preparation<<< How about these apples: (Its no wonder Warren Buffett is short the dollar when he sees that it costs Americans 22% of every dollar collected in taxes, just to calculate how much tax is due): The Rising Cost of Complying with the Federal Income Tax Executive Summary In 2005, taxpayers will pay roughly $1.2 trillion in federal income taxes. But America’s tax burden is more than just the amount of tax paid. It also includes the cost of complying with federal taxes, including tax planning, paperwork and other hassles caused by tax complexity. In the last century the cost of tax compliance has grown tremendously. This is due partly to the inherent difficulty of taxing income, but also because of growing non-economic demands lawmakers place on the tax code. As Congress debates the tax reform recommendations of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, Members should address this growing compliance burden, and work to reduce it through tax simplification and reform. In 2005 individuals, businesses and nonprofits will spend an estimated 6 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code, with an estimated compliance cost of over $265.1 billion. This amounts to imposing a 22-cent tax compliance surcharge for every dollar the income tax system collects. Projections show that by 2015 the compliance cost will grow to $482.7 billion. (See Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2). more.... taxfoundation.org

To: Paul Senior who wrote (60919)	4/4/2006 9:45:07 PM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 206325

OT: Whew. Fed. and state income tax returns mailed today. Ditto first quarter 2006 estimated tax payments. I figure I spent about 40 hours this year using Turbotax for the first time. That's with the benefit of having last year's return that was "professionally" prepared as a guide. Also, this year I have had to cope with four broker revisions showing up occasionally in my mail. (original followed by two revisions ---from each of two brokers). The last revision yesterday necessitated running & printing the whole fed/state tax package again.