Announcements Meet Lauren Young, the TurboTax Deductionista Read the Article Open Share Drawer Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Written by TurboTaxBlogTeam Published Jan 29, 2010 1 min read The TurboTax Blog Team would like to introduce Lauren Young, the TurboTax Deductionista. In fact, she weighs in right away about the State of the Union and how it could impact you in her first post “What Middle Class Tax Credits Could Mean to You”. As TurboTax Deductionista, Lauren will offer consumers far and wide advice on getting financially-savvy right here on the TurboTax Blog. She brings over 17 years of financial media experience to the table, and will help taxpayers find ways to put more money in their pockets (yay!). “My goal is make taxes easier for Americans, which is why I’m very excited to be joining the TurboTax team,” said Lauren, who has been using TurboTax software for more than a decade. “TurboTax is all about getting people their biggest refund–that’s definitely something I am proud to be part of.” Lauren is a former writer for BusinessWeek’s Personal Business section, where she covered personal finance. You also may have seen Lauren appear as personal finance expert on TV shows, including CBS News, CNBC and Good Morning America. Lauren was previously a senior writer for SmartMoney. Prior to that, she covered mutual funds and capital markets for Dow Jones News and was a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Based in Brooklyn, Lauren lives with her husband, an attorney, and their five-year-old son. Previous Post What the Middle Class Tax Credits Could Mean for You Next Post What Do People Like You Think About TurboTax? Written by TurboTaxBlogTeam More from TurboTaxBlogTeam 15 responses to “Meet Lauren Young, the TurboTax Deductionista” While I found this site to contain the same question I have, it really isn’t helpful if I can’t follow the thread to find the answer. Reply I mitigated my mortgage all my late payments(mostly interest) were added to my new mortgage balance. How do I deduct the interest Reply Hi James – Check out this post on dependents! http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/taxes-101/personal-income-tax-exemptions-explained/ Thanks! Ashley Reply Daughter college grad in May then went to work in Sept, we paid for her to live Jan-Aug, her income since is 8K. Can we claim her for 09? Reply Dear Deductionista: I was surprised that the University sent my wife a 1099-MISC from the $1,000 grant she received to do a research project. I found the place on TurboTax to add this information, but I’m puzzled that we have to pay 350 dollars in taxes on a grant that she is forced to spend on the study. The IRS document on 1099-MISC says: Do not use Form 1099-MISC to report grants that are taxable to the recipient because they are paid for teaching research. How do I report it on TurboTax? Do I have to pay taxes on it like Income? 1099 Misc is also used by people with rental properties, lottery gains etc. Thanks for your help. I love the product, and I admire TurboTax for hiring pros like you. Reply Hey All – if you have specific tax questions you can get them answered for free on Twitter by tweeting @TeamTurboTax http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/turbotax-tweets-tax-and-tech-answers-on-twitter/ Thanks, Ashley Reply I have been a Turbo Tax user for 5 Years and I have never had this type of issue. Can you answer, or direct me to the answer of the following question. My wife and I are retired and have an investment account, which consists of IRA’s, with a local bank. The bank charges “Account Fees” which I would like to know if we can deduct on our Federal Tax Return? Reply I have used TurboTax for three years. The first year I was a self-employed Realtor. IRS told me I didn’t make enough that year to receive the stimulus refund from the Bush plan. (go figure-who would need it more?) Last year I was fortunate to have a salaried job and received a tax refund from OVER Paying tax but I didn’t get a stimulus payment either. This year I could finally afford to contribute to a 401K BEFORE I got laid off end of June and drew unemployment compensation. OOPS…I made too much last year to benefit from an IRA. I expected to receive a larger refund since they took so much out all at once when laid off. Will I receive any kind of additional stimulus payment or is the $400 work credit all there is this year? I also think non-disclosure of the double fees for Turbo Tax and automatic deposit were dissappointing when I expected to be using the free version. I paid the fees so I wouldn’t have to start all over again. But it left a really bad taste in my mouth to have to eat the fees! Reply Shep: First, on your tax question. We’ll have one of our tax folks respond here as I don’t have the background to answer that. Second, I assume you’re talking about the refund transfer option when you file with TurboTax. TurboTax does NOT charge any fee to have your refund direct deposited into your bank account– and never has. The bank fee you are talking about is for the customer’s option of having the bank pay the TurboTax fee directly to us. It has nothing to do with direct deposit. Direct deposit is always free. Most of our customers pay with a credit card in which there is no bank fee. The option to pay using the bank’s services is clearly disclosed on at least 5 screens prior to filing the return. At all points, the customer can opt out and select the free option, which is to pay by credit card. This is the option almost all our customers select. So in summary, direct deposit is always a free option with TurboTax. Thanks…let me know if you have any other questions. Reply I have used TurboTax for three years. The first year I was a self-employed Realtor. IRS told me I didn’t make enough that year to receive the stimulus refund from the Bush plan. (go figure-who would need it more?) Last year I was fortunate to have a salaried job and received a tax refund from OVER Paying tax but I didn’t get a stimulus payment either. This year I could finally afford to contribute to a 401K BEFORE I got laid off end of June and drew unemployment compensation. OOPS…I made too much last year to benefit from an IRA. I expected to receive a larger refund since they took so much out all at once when laid off. Will I receive any kind of additional stimulus payment or is the $400 work credit all there is this year? I also think non-disclosure of the double fees for Turbo Tax and automatic deposit were dissappointing when I expected to be using the free version. I paid the fees so I wouldn’t have to start all over again. But it left a really bad taste in my mouth to had to eat the fees! Reply what is kilowatt capacity……for my turbo tax Reply Is there any tax break if your house went through foreclosure in 2009? Reply My wife drives our truck for work miles and she get paid half the allowable milage, can we deduct the half? Her gas check does nor seem to cover our gas bill all the time. Reply I am a first user of turbo tax and I need to ask you some question before I start. 1- Isnt there a video guide that i can watch and teach me how to do it. 2- Im a homeowner that is facing foreclosure, I took last year home credit cause i bought my house in 2008.. do i have to pay anything this year from what i took. if yes what do i have to do? 3- I work in one state and live in another. I have to fill up (2) 1040 forms from each state how does turbo tax do that? 4- how do i include my girlfriend in my taxes. we have almost 3 years living together but we are not Married. Reply Turbo Tax is stuck right before I want to efile my return . It is in a loop stating a line on my state return must match a line on my federal return and it does match but I cant get past it – to efile. any ideas???? Reply Leave a ReplyCancel reply Browse Related Articles Education Podcast: Tax Tips to Help You With Student Debt TurboTax News HOLA! 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While I found this site to contain the same question I have, it really isn’t helpful if I can’t follow the thread to find the answer. Reply
I mitigated my mortgage all my late payments(mostly interest) were added to my new mortgage balance. How do I deduct the interest Reply
Hi James – Check out this post on dependents! http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/taxes-101/personal-income-tax-exemptions-explained/ Thanks! Ashley Reply
Daughter college grad in May then went to work in Sept, we paid for her to live Jan-Aug, her income since is 8K. Can we claim her for 09? Reply
Dear Deductionista: I was surprised that the University sent my wife a 1099-MISC from the $1,000 grant she received to do a research project. I found the place on TurboTax to add this information, but I’m puzzled that we have to pay 350 dollars in taxes on a grant that she is forced to spend on the study. The IRS document on 1099-MISC says: Do not use Form 1099-MISC to report grants that are taxable to the recipient because they are paid for teaching research. How do I report it on TurboTax? Do I have to pay taxes on it like Income? 1099 Misc is also used by people with rental properties, lottery gains etc. Thanks for your help. I love the product, and I admire TurboTax for hiring pros like you. Reply
Hey All – if you have specific tax questions you can get them answered for free on Twitter by tweeting @TeamTurboTax http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/turbotax-tweets-tax-and-tech-answers-on-twitter/ Thanks, Ashley Reply
I have been a Turbo Tax user for 5 Years and I have never had this type of issue. Can you answer, or direct me to the answer of the following question. My wife and I are retired and have an investment account, which consists of IRA’s, with a local bank. The bank charges “Account Fees” which I would like to know if we can deduct on our Federal Tax Return? Reply
I have used TurboTax for three years. The first year I was a self-employed Realtor. IRS told me I didn’t make enough that year to receive the stimulus refund from the Bush plan. (go figure-who would need it more?) Last year I was fortunate to have a salaried job and received a tax refund from OVER Paying tax but I didn’t get a stimulus payment either. This year I could finally afford to contribute to a 401K BEFORE I got laid off end of June and drew unemployment compensation. OOPS…I made too much last year to benefit from an IRA. I expected to receive a larger refund since they took so much out all at once when laid off. Will I receive any kind of additional stimulus payment or is the $400 work credit all there is this year? I also think non-disclosure of the double fees for Turbo Tax and automatic deposit were dissappointing when I expected to be using the free version. I paid the fees so I wouldn’t have to start all over again. But it left a really bad taste in my mouth to have to eat the fees! Reply
Shep: First, on your tax question. We’ll have one of our tax folks respond here as I don’t have the background to answer that. Second, I assume you’re talking about the refund transfer option when you file with TurboTax. TurboTax does NOT charge any fee to have your refund direct deposited into your bank account– and never has. The bank fee you are talking about is for the customer’s option of having the bank pay the TurboTax fee directly to us. It has nothing to do with direct deposit. Direct deposit is always free. Most of our customers pay with a credit card in which there is no bank fee. The option to pay using the bank’s services is clearly disclosed on at least 5 screens prior to filing the return. At all points, the customer can opt out and select the free option, which is to pay by credit card. This is the option almost all our customers select. So in summary, direct deposit is always a free option with TurboTax. Thanks…let me know if you have any other questions. Reply
I have used TurboTax for three years. The first year I was a self-employed Realtor. IRS told me I didn’t make enough that year to receive the stimulus refund from the Bush plan. (go figure-who would need it more?) Last year I was fortunate to have a salaried job and received a tax refund from OVER Paying tax but I didn’t get a stimulus payment either. This year I could finally afford to contribute to a 401K BEFORE I got laid off end of June and drew unemployment compensation. OOPS…I made too much last year to benefit from an IRA. I expected to receive a larger refund since they took so much out all at once when laid off. Will I receive any kind of additional stimulus payment or is the $400 work credit all there is this year? I also think non-disclosure of the double fees for Turbo Tax and automatic deposit were dissappointing when I expected to be using the free version. I paid the fees so I wouldn’t have to start all over again. But it left a really bad taste in my mouth to had to eat the fees! Reply
My wife drives our truck for work miles and she get paid half the allowable milage, can we deduct the half? Her gas check does nor seem to cover our gas bill all the time. Reply
I am a first user of turbo tax and I need to ask you some question before I start. 1- Isnt there a video guide that i can watch and teach me how to do it. 2- Im a homeowner that is facing foreclosure, I took last year home credit cause i bought my house in 2008.. do i have to pay anything this year from what i took. if yes what do i have to do? 3- I work in one state and live in another. I have to fill up (2) 1040 forms from each state how does turbo tax do that? 4- how do i include my girlfriend in my taxes. we have almost 3 years living together but we are not Married. Reply
Turbo Tax is stuck right before I want to efile my return . It is in a loop stating a line on my state return must match a line on my federal return and it does match but I cant get past it – to efile. any ideas???? Reply