Tax Estimator

[erchess]

Does anyone know of one or more good Federal and/or State Tax Estimators that are free or reasonably priced?

I have tried the one mentioned in another recent thread on one return and the result coincides with my hand calculation.

[S T]

Not Free

I usually use my Tax Program which includes an Estimator and/or Tax Planner, or use CFS Tax Tools.

Sandy

[Rchinchilla]

RushTax Quick Estimator

Our version will be available to all NSTP members before the end of the year. It will be a desktop product no need to go online. However it is light weight. I haven't seen anything like it out there though, meaning desktop stand-alone version.

[S T]

Other Memberships

Since you are promoting, what about other memberships as well, such as NAEA.

[Rchinchilla]

NAEA never got back to us. We aren't going to jump the gun. Its actually been 396 days since they said "We'll get back to you if we are interested". This was in reference to using the name "NAEA Tax Estimator" for use by all its members. Beanna Whitlock however was very prompt to respond. Even People's Income Tax had an estimator on their site.

[erchess]

How about NATP

You went after NSTP how about NATP?

[Rchinchilla]

We asked them as well. They bounced us around to a couple of people until we got this

Please help me to understand why NATP members, who are tax professionals, would be interested in your product.....Would you be willing to advertise in NATP's Journal or purchase a booth space at our Conference? What percentage of clients come in to a tax office demanding an estimated return amount before their return is prepared by a tax professional?
Susan Lucius
Director of Marketing and Communications
National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP)

So we responded and then she said this

Thank you for the information. I will pass it on to the appropriate staff for review.

Now we have decided that we should just go directly to the users, the tax professionals. Carolyn, tell me why you are interested in a tax estimator? and do clients actually come into your office asking you for an estimated return amount before their return is prepared? Do you think estimates demean a tax professional?

[DonPriebe]

... tell me why you are interested in a tax estimator? and do clients actually come into your office asking you for an estimated return amount before their return is prepared? Do you think estimates demean a tax professional?

I think the value of an estimator depends strictly on the type of client that the office is serving. When I worked in a storefront office that promoted RALS we would occasionally get potential clients who were looking for an estimate of their refund. These were usually ultra simply returns - one or two W2's with EIC - and an estimate could usually be done manually. But these potential customers were comparison shopping, and would/should have received the same estimate at every tax office they tried. They based their buying decision on non-financial factors - how long they would have to wait for service if they came back, or how fast they would receive their check, or how well they were treated by the staff. So having had a formal estimator would have been of minimal benefit to us.

The most beneficial use of an estimator is in doing detailed "what-if" analysis before the fact. Should I take additional losses now to counteract the expected distributions from my mutual funds? With the new property tax adder to the standard deduction, should I pay my fourth quarter state estimated tax now or in January? An estimator that handle these questions would have to permit the entry of data at the detailed (rather than summary) level, would have the ability to store data, would automatically tie to the state estimator, and would be practically indistinguishable from a full tax preparation program.

[DaveO]

I have a fair number of clients I do estimates or projections for. Drake has a tax planner feature that will extend for several years and uses the information from the prior year as a starting point. Income and adjustments can be changed and new schedules added. It produces a easy to read printout. I still do some work by hand for self employed and farmers but have begun to transfer those numbers to the planner.

[Lion]

Estimate

If your software doesn't offer what you need, there are several free ones out there. There's this Roger guy's, and it seems the on-line tax prep companies offer free estimators even before purchasing anything, and HRB offers one on their site. Several state web sites offer state estimators, especially states that start with the federal AGI anyway. Probably a few publications offer one.

[powerage]

Yep, I estimate

I use my tax program also, I input their info, put the return on hold, then I give the client my card with important info, in pen on the back, with instructions to call me and make an appointment when they receive their W-2's.

[fliszt]

I too

use my tax software and no further need for other software.
Larry

[Rchinchilla]

Time consuming?

So let me understand what is being said here about using the tax software.

Does your software have an tax estimator
Or

Are you creating a new retun > jumping through screens to input info > add bd's, kids ssn's, kid's bd's, w2 info....pretty much shy of pressing the EFILE button to get an estimate?

How long does it take you to create and estimate with the latter option?

[bigdadder]

I duplicate previous year's return, then adjust the numbers to as close to this year as possible. The result in most cases will not be too far off. And then when the estimate is no longer useful, delete the duplicated return.