This may be a dumb question. For many years, I have prepared our taxes through TurboTax. My family is very simple. Single income. 401k. Mortgage. Little bank interest. College loan interest. I think the standard deduction always is applied. For 2024, I have one new document… a 1099-DIV. I'm a partner at a firm that sold/merged. I got a sizable payout from that purchase. TurboTax seems to have handled this fine. I knew I would owe. Because of the amount of money this year, it is in my head that I need professional advice or oversight on my taxes. But in reality, there is only one additional tax document compared to previous years. My gut says everything is fine, go with TurboTax and submit, and professional help is unnecessary. What do you think?

Candiru said:

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This may be a dumb question. For many years, I have prepared our taxes through TurboTax. My family is very simple. Single income. 401k. Mortgage. Little bank interest. College loan interest. I think the standard deduction always is applied. For 2024, I have one new document… a 1099-DIV. I'm a partner at a firm that sold/merged. I got a sizable payout from that purchase. TurboTax seems to have handled this fine. I knew I would owe. Because of the amount of money this year, it is in my head that I need professional advice or oversight on my taxes. But in reality, there is only one additional tax document compared to previous years. My gut says everything is fine, go with TurboTax and submit, and professional help is unnecessary. What do you think?

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Did turbo tax record it as a qualified dividend? There is a tax rate difference between ordinary dividends and qualified dividends. You will want to make sure that's correct.

It looks to be called a qualified dividend in TurboTax.

You should be good then!

The 1040 isn't that complicated. Run down your income and double check against the forms you've got. That qualified dividend should be taxed at 0, 15, or 20 and not normal rates. Go to "forms" and confirm on the qualified dividend worksheet.

If you have been doing your own return for years and have been satisfied that you have been doing it correctly, then the one additional form should not be an issue. As others have said, just be sure if the 1099-DIV reports it as a qualified dividend (numbers will be in box 1a and box 1b), that you have entered it into the software such that the program treats it that way. If it reported your payout as a liquidation distribution or any other boxes on the form, then your reporting will differ.

I would recommend giving freetaxusa a try since you have a pretty good understanding of your taxes you likely don't need to pay for turbo tax. I know TurboTax is nice of you are itemizing your dedication but if you are taking the standard deduction you are paying a lot for software that doesn't really get you much.

Who is a good person to talk to about tax strategy going forward? Has to be something in investment property that the family can enjoy (ranch, lake house etc) that can be an also be a investment that I can purchase that will knock down 6 figure tax bill every year?