Here is your answer. I would not recommend doing taxes yourself with computer software unless you are a 1040EZ teenager with a single W2 from a part time job. Rebecca and I tried the software approach once, then took the whole thing into a pro and got $500 more refunded (that is including the fee we paid them to do it for us).
You can have H&R Block talk to the IRS if their is a question, you can even have H&R block guarantee their work and pay the IRS fine if their was a typing mistake. Try this, get your taxes all ready to file with TurboTax, then take it all in to H&R block and have them do it again. I bet they will find stuff you missed (or were unaware of) and your larger refund will more than pay for their fee. You might want to bring in the previous two years of tax documents as well, so they can make amended filings for the stuff you missed on those filings.
All that being said, their are some things I would rather do myself. Some people would rather crawl under a car and change their oil because they don't trust Jiffy Lube. I am not like that, I love that someone will take $25 to crawl under my car and change my oil. I smile as I pay that person to do it and appreciate that it is not me on the ground under a dirty car. If I was sued, I would not plan on defending myself in court, I would hire a pro who is familiar with the laws and regulations to defend me.
Sometimes you are much better off getting a Dell or Apple than trying to piece a system together yourself. You are better off letting a pro handle the selection of the hardware and software. I built my computer because I was able to do so cheaper and wanted more control over the components put in it than if I just grabbed a Dell. Also, if I make a mistake building the computer, it is unlikely I will go to jail or have to stand trial in Federal court because of that mistake. I am not a tax expert and so I think it is much better to just accept that and allow a pro to do it for me, than try to do it myself and risk making an expensive mistake that could put me in court or prison or cause me to owe hefty fines.
So here's a question, why would you do complex taxes with computer software?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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6 comments:
Well all you are paying them for is to use software to input your taxes anyhow. The software now is pretty darn good at catching and notifying you of things. I'd be very interested in you going to turbotax.com and putting in all your stuff (not actually filing) and seeing how close the 2 are. We saw better results from turbotax.com than we did going through an actual CPA.
well, my experience is certainly different from that, in fact quite the opposite. Software expert systems will continue to get better and better. Maybe eventually we won't go to tax pros, or even doctors. Right, we can just load up webmd.com and diagnose our own rash print off the prescription the system identified as the correct one thus further reduce pesky human interaction to even further minimums.
I always did it myself until my situation got SO DANG complicated. I finally gave in two years ago.
What is funny, is that I spend some of my time at work with our tax department - which makes my personal tax seem simple and inexpensive.
Maybe I just don't have any energy left over?
I love my accountant.
Yeah NJ and NY taxes sound complicated, I am glad you found an accountant you can depend on Christina.
I'm not trying to avoid any personal interaction. I've just not ever found a benefit to having taxes done by a real person versus really good software. And as I noted previously all the people I've had do my taxes use software (even h & r).
I always did my own taxes until they got too complicated. It makes me absolutely CRAZY that taxes are out of control enough that I (with an MBA in Finance) pay someone else to figure them out for me. But like I said, maybe I just ran out of "tax" energy.
I think taxes should be simple enough that we can all do them ourselves.
Go Lincoln and Hannah!
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