Tony's the best. Try and get him though, not any one else in the office.

Quote:

i concur. tony's great.

Tony Ferrara, over by the County Court House has been doing my taxes for years. I highly recommend them.

I third the suggestion of using Turbo Tax. One nice thing about it is that once you do it one year a lot of the work can be imported for the next year (your name, address, etc.). I just did my Fed/NY/NJ taxes with it for the second year and it took less than 2 hours total.

My suspicion is that unless you make a lot of money and have unusual needs you are probably better off with Turbo Tax than a paid preparer. This stuff is very rules based and I have more confidence that a software package used by millions will be correct than a low level employee. Even a good CPA can make mistakes - a girlfriend of mine had her father's CPA do her taxes and he missed a big IRA deduction (probably because his clients made too much to get it).

Quote:

Quote:

Agreed. I had a CPA who competently got me out of a sticky situation with the IRS, but when it came to returns I was paying big bucks for data entry by his clerks. I got minimal oversight, feedback or guidance. Some basic mistakes were made. I've been using Turbotax for almost a decade. It can do complex things like what portions of your owner occupied multifamily building's expenses are deductable, and calculates depreciations.

Unless you have a very complicated tax situation I would recommend doing the taxes yourself. You will save a lot of money on tax preparation fees. With all the software out there like TurboTax you really don't need to know anything about tax laws and the software is very intuitive and easy to understand.

If your taxes are complicated (more than just having NJ and NY, for example) I would recommend using a CPA.

In no event should you use H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt. Almost all of the people who prepare taxes for those companies have had minimal training and are essentially a human version of TurboTax. (In fact H&R block employees basically use a custom version of their TaxCut software, and you'd be better off just using TurboTax than going to those services.)

Also, be wary of any tax preparer who provides you a refund check directly the same day they finish your taxes (or the next day). Any tax refund will actually come from the federal government or state government and takes a minimum of a few days to process (usually 2 weeks though).

If you get your money sooner, through Rapid Refund or some other program. you are actually getting a loan (a refund anticipation loan or RAL). Make sure the tax preparer clearly outlines the fees they charge for the loan and the interest rate. You would be shocked how high the fees and interest can be. Often the APR will be 25%, a truly egregious rate. You're usually just better off waiting the 2 weeks until the refund comes directly from the government.

I have been going to this tax place for years. They do my NY/NJ taxes. I cannot say if they know other state laws, but they have always served me well. BTW, I went saturday and I got my check on Monday. Not bad right? :)

JRK Business Services
548 Westside Avenue
(corner of Lexington Ave)
Jersey City, NJ 07304
Tel: 201-985-2950/2951

Ask to see Roland (he's the main guy) but be prepared to wait a few hours. I waited 3 hours to see him. Also bring plenty of quarters for the meter and allow yourself up to 30 mins to find parking. It's a busy place!

Good luck!

Does anyone know a place in Jersey City they can recommend for doing Taxes, with competent people that know filing procedures in multiple states? Any suggestions are appreciated!!!!