RealGM

I'm posting this to remind you guys to file on time, and to vent about Wisconsin's ridiculously inefficient system for nonresidents. If you earn income in WI, but don't "domicile" there, you can't e-file, and have to send in copies of every state and federal return you've done, along with all supporting documents (including W-2's and investment forms that don't pertain to WI).

As a musician I earned small amounts of income in a whole bunch of states, and was able to e-file in every last one of them except Wisconsin. Why is WI the only state that wants my phonebook sized stack of non-related state returns and 1099's?

I have no objection to the concept of paying taxes and I make a sincere effort to report every penny that I earn, but they've gone too far in making it extremely difficult for any layperson to fill out these papers without the assistance of software or an accountant. And in the case of Wisconsin, they've removed software as a viable option for non-residents, since you can't e-file anyway. Are they intentionally making it so difficult that I'll be tempted to enlist a professional so that they earn a few extra bucks on that person's income? Or hoping I'll screw up so that I can be charged some sort of fee?

It shouldn't be this complicated. I did one gig in your state last year, and owe X amount of money for it. You don't need 100 pages of supporting documentation.

That World of Business class I took in high school has made taxes a breeze.

That's one heck of a high school class if it covered all the contractor/self employed nonsense I have to deal with.

adamcz wrote:That's one heck of a high school class if it covered all the contractor/self employed nonsense I have to deal with.

Oh it didn't cover everything but we got an understanding on how to do taxes for ourselves and just basic skills that you need to succeed in business. So it was very beneficial to freshman and sophomores who took that class.

mine are just staggeringly simple and i did them in january i think, had the refund a week later

Mine were a little crazy this year since I started an LLC but I also used turbo tax for the first time rather than paying for them to be done and I am happy that I did. Turbo tax is a great program that is so easy to use. Accountants wanted 200-500 to do my LLC stuff and another 100 or so to do my personal taxes. Turbo tax saved me a lot of money to say the least. I also owned a home for a full year this tax year and it is amazing how good of a write off that is when interest on your mortgage loan and property taxes can all be written off.

I owe the state of Illinois $60.

F***ers

WEFFPIM wrote:I owe the state of Illinois $60.

F***ers

Reason #9290232 to blow it up.

I used TurboTax as well, and it went extremely smoothly for everything except WI. I recommend it to anyone not filing in WI as a non-resident. It's basically the same software as what the temp employee at H&R Block would use if you paid them $250.

I haven't done mine yet.

No worries. I do em myself using TaxCut. Usually takes about 3 hours. Last year I bought this really cool version where all of the software came on a USB Storage Device and then all of your info got saved to it. Hopefully they'll have one of those when I go to Circuit City tomorrow. If not I'll just have to go with the old school CDs.

you have to buy it every year?

Yup. State and federal tax codes change based on the budget.

Mags FTW wrote:Yup. State and federal tax codes change based on the budget.

wow, i thought you could just download an update or something. now that's a hustle

I do mine online at OLT.com

I do the turbo tax online thing - there's nothing to download. They charge around $30 per state. If you go to each state's website directly, you can usually find something that's free (except for WI of course - I'll take every opportunity to complain about them!), but taxes are stressful to me, and I'd rather just pay the fee to get it over with more quickly.