Is a tax preparer worth it?

[minnie1928]

FWIW, my parents took their CRAZY simple return to H&R Block for years. They hit an extremely rough patch financially so I jumped in and took over. One of the first things I began doing was their tax returns. First year out I found that Block was missing a pretty big deduction and we ended up amending a year or two of returns for about $400 worth of refunds. And this wasn't some obscure deduction either.

At the end of the day, it's your neck on the line. You need to be sure of every number on that form. Just because a CPA/Block/whatever does it for you, it's still your responsibility that the numbers that are filed are correct. Don't assume that they are 100% accurate. Double check their numbers, ask them how they calculated it, will it stand up in an audit, etc.. Their representation at an audit is a nice feature, but it doesn't guarantee results in your favor if you don't have the documentation or tax code on your side.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

It only takes me about an hour to do them, and we itemize deductions (mortgage, charitable contributions), so to me, hiring a professional is not worth it. I wouldn't unless I was a business owner.

 

[North of Mouse]

To those of you who have used both turbo tax and an accountant in the past for itemized returns - did the accountant help you get a bigger return? Is it worth the couple hundred dollar cost?

No, turbo tax walks you through all the steps and asks for certain information. The only exceptions are if you have a complicated return. We used them when we had a company transfer which involved extra income plus selling and buying a new home.

Doing your own is quicker and cheaper. Our return has already been posted to our account.

 

[North of Mouse]

Our accountant is well worth the $100 fee he charges for taxes. It saves us time, stress and money.

My dh does ours in less than an hour, and is not stressful at all. The key is to be organized during the year, keep one folder for all your pertinent tax information neatly together.

They definitely wouldn't *save* us money, but *cost* us!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

My dh does ours in less than an hour, and is not stressful at all. The key is to be organized during the year, keep one folder for all your pertinent tax information neatly together.

They definitely wouldn't *save* us money, but *cost* us!

I'm a planner by nature, so organization isn't a problem for me!

 

[clanmcculloch]

We used a CPA once. It's a good thing I looked over everything before submitting it because he completely missed my DSD's college tax credit (yes, everything he needed was in the envelope I handed to him with all of my info and there wasn't even a heck of a lot of stuff). So basically I had to go over my taxes anyway; I might as well have done them myself.

As to places like H&R Block, keep in mind that the people doing taxes for the most part have only been trained to use the software and plug in numbers. Many of them are not much better trained than you are to use Turbo Tax or other software.

I just do it with Turbo Tax. My taxes are very simple even with itemizing. Turbo Tax steps through everything and makes it very easy.

 

[2disneyboys]

My answer is YES. For me, it's a time & money saver. Our's is pretty complicated. I keep folders throughout the year of stuff and then once we get all of our forms (we are usually waiting on K1's right around early to mid March) I take everything to them. Answer some questions and leave. Next day or so, we meet w/ the accountant to reivew them (and he takes the time to review line by line) and he sends them off. We also have a planning chat for the upcoming year, and anytime during the year if I have a question or a thought, I can call & he either discusses with me over the phone or has me come in & we discuss. All of this is included in his "annual" fee. Some years he makes money off of us as we dont' have many questions/issues. other years, we more than come out ahead.

TO US using our accountant is not about getting back bigger refunds. Personally, we prefer to come as close to breaking even as we possibly can. a few years ago, we owed State $11.00 and we got back $348 in Federal. Thats a "happy" tax time to me . Before I started using him, and did taxes myself, we were getting several 1,000 refunds and when we met with him, we told him we don't like getting huge refunds, we don't want to have to "pay" a huge bill, or quarterly, but we don't want huge refunds either. Yet, we do want to claim all deductions we are "entitled" to. He told me how to adjust our withholdings, so that the following year our tax time was more in line with what worked for us.

This works for us, but may not work for others. Thats ok.

 

[redsonja76]

I've been using the same woman for 10 years and she is worth every penny. We took our three years prior to her (before we started using her regularly) and she found us several hundreds of dollars. You absolutely get what you pay for, and I believe we get far more than that with our accountant!

 

[redsonja76]

FWIW, my parents took their CRAZY simple return to H&R Block for years. They hit an extremely rough patch financially so I jumped in and took over. One of the first things I began doing was their tax returns. First year out I found that Block was missing a pretty big deduction and we ended up amending a year or two of returns for about $400 worth of refunds. And this wasn't some obscure deduction either.

At the end of the day, it's your neck on the line. You need to be sure of every number on that form. Just because a CPA/Block/whatever does it for you, it's still your responsibility that the numbers that are filed are correct. Don't assume that they are 100% accurate. Double check their numbers, ask them how they calculated it, will it stand up in an audit, etc.. Their representation at an audit is a nice feature, but it doesn't guarantee results in your favor if you don't have the documentation or tax code on your side.

For what it's worth I *personally* think H&R Block is total crap. They screw up ALL the time, and their fees are outrageous! So comparing H&R Block to a certified CPA is like comparing Walmart to Nordstrom. It just isn't the same.

 

[jls886]

As to places like H&R Block, keep in mind that the people doing taxes for the most part have only been trained to use the software and plug in numbers. Many of them are not much better trained than you are to use Turbo Tax or other software.

Just have to say, this isn't entirely true. My mom has done taxes for H&R Block for 14 years and they have to go through multiple classes on tax code and rules every year. Every time there is a change, there is a new class. The class does not just teach them how to plug in the numbers, it teaches them the rules. Many of their preparers also go the extra mile and get extra certifications in things. They do have year-round preparers (for things like audits, etc, that happen year-round) and for those it is their entire profession. Yes, some people at H&R Block are better than others, just as some accountants are better than others. Some have more experience than others, some are just more inquisitive and thorough than others.

She has had clients come to her that went to a different Block preparer the year before and she has found mistakes. If they find a mistake on a return that they did previously, they fix it for free. She has also found people hundreds and at times thousands more because of errors on previous years' returns. She also has looked over prior years and found not one extra dime, or like PPs have said that they actually owe because of errors.

One nice thing that they do offer is called 'Peace of Mind' and it is basically an insurance policy on your return. In the event that you are audited, it is then H&R Block that represents you and does all of the leg-work so that you don't have to do that yourself. I believe it is around $45 to purchase that and many people feel that it is worth every dime, especially those with extremely complicated returns or those that have been audited in the past.

 

[bored]

I used to be a tax manager for a large local firm and our partners used to love to see former H&R Block, Jackson-Hewitt etc... clients come in, because they knew we would get fees to amend a few prior year returns. It was scary to see how poorly prepared the returns that came out of these places were.

I use Turbo Tax and recommend it to everyone. If you going to pay someone find an independent CPA to prepare them.

 

[minnie1928]

So comparing H&R Block to a certified CPA is like comparing Walmart to Nordstrom. It just isn't the same.

Generically speaking, I agree with that. My bigger point is that you are ultimately responsible for what is filed with the IRS. Regardless of who prepares your return, you need to make sure that the information is accurate and defendable in the event of an audit. Just because a CPA does your return, doesn't guarantee that the return is correct.

I'm sensitive to this as I am currently being audited. As I prepared for the audit, I found many things that were missed by my CPA. The IRS could care less that a CPA did my return, they only care about the information that was filed and whether or not it's accurate.

 

[ManyMinnie]

My dh does ours in less than an hour, and is not stressful at all. The key is to be organized during the year, keep one folder for all your pertinent tax information neatly together.

They definitely wouldn't *save* us money, but *cost* us!

We have our tax folder neatly organized. All we do is hand it over at tax time and he takes care of the rest.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Husurdady]

To those of you who have used both turbo tax and an accountant in the past for itemized returns - did the accountant help you get a bigger return? Is it worth the couple hundred dollar cost?

Yes I would say so....to the tune of $800.00 [net] by us using A CPA......I would never had known of my mistake for the two previous years in filing our taxes. It cost us 2 hundred to get back an extra eight hundred dollars .

 

[North of Mouse]

Yes I would say so....to the tune of $800.00 [net] by us using A CPA......I would never had known of my mistake for the two previous years in filing our taxes. It cost us 2 hundred to get back an extra eight hundred dollars .

You can only get back what is owed you, no matter who prepares your returns. We always know from questions on turbo tax, plus our past filings, all that is due us, nothing more, or less.

Complicated returns are naturally harder, businesses, buying/selling stocks, buying/selling homes, transfers, etc. But basically standard filings are not hard at all, and it should be pretty clear what your refunds should be.