Kelly
Guru
I live and work in Philadelphia, PA. I moved to Philly from rural NC to attend Temple University School of Law where I earned my J.D. and LL. M Taxation.
While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At the IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit.
I love to write and talk tax. I present on tax topics around the country - in July, I was in San Francisco at BlogHer to discuss tax for freelancers and bloggers. I was also interviewed this summer for a movie, An Inconvenient Tax, focusing on tax reform.
I write a monthly tax column for The Legal Intelligencer, the oldest law journal in the US. I'm also working on a book about the history of tax.
At taxgirl.com, you can read my take on tax news, tax policy and tax information. Stop by, comment or ask me question. It's painless, trust me.
You can also find me at twitter.com/taxgirl
Did I mention that I drink a lot of coffee?
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Household Income
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Credit Card Debt
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- Real Name
- Kelly Phillips Erb
- Birthday
- Sep
- Join Date
- May 12, 2008
- Homepage
- http://www.taxgirl.com
- Relationship Status
- Married
- Location
- Philadelphia, PA
- Got Kids?
- 3
- What's your day job?
- tax attorney/channel editor and blogger
- What would you do with a free $100,000?
- I'm supposed to be sensible and say "pay off debt." But where's the fun in that? So instead I'd say "pay off a little debt" and spend the rest on travel and some fancy tech toys.
Latest Questions Answered
We are a sm.business & want to offer our clients lunch on us (Up to $100). ...
Kelly's most recent response
Guru
Here's some additional food for thought... There is a $25 deduction limit ...
4 total responses | View Discussion »
Latest Reviews
Average rating:
4.4
On Aug 16, 2008 Kelly reviewed Auto Insurance from AllState
I live in Philadelphia, where we have ridiculously high rates as compared to the rest of Pennsylvania. Oddly, my neighborhood now earns "suburban" rates even though it's located in the City - but only through Allstate. When we moved here, we shopped around and saved over $500/year by switching from USAA. They offer discounts for all sorts of things including safe driving records and bundled p…olicies. Our agent is fabulous - we're very pleased with the coverage.
Read More | See all Auto Insurance reviews »
Average rating:
2.7
On Aug 16, 2008 Kelly reviewed LendingTree
We used LendingTree once - for a quote on a re-fi - simply out of curiosity. We ended up going back to our original lender (better rate, fewer hoops) who expressed concern that our credit record showed so many inquiries - apparently, when you use LendingTree, the lenders all hit your credit report to pre-qual you. But the result is that some lenders do not look on those stats favorably.
See all LendingTree reviews »
Average rating:
5.0
On Jul 3, 2008 Kelly reviewed Intuit
I get asked all of the time what kind of software I use in my practice. The answer is that when I do use software, I use tax pro software which is not widely available.
But at home, I do use tax software - and I use TurboTax. It is what I have used for years (though I have experimented).
A couple of nice things - 1, it's Mac compatible and we're Mac only at home; 2, the price is right; 3, the…re are several options/tracks that are flexible so that you can make adjustments based on your level of expertise (from "I don't know anything" to "just give me the form").
Do I have quibbles? Of course. No software is perfect. And I'm not crazy about the "add ons" at the end of any of the programs, Turbo Tax included. But largely, I feel confident that my data is safe, the return is accurate and that I've covered all of my bases.
