Tax software or accountant?

[mrsklamc]

There have been debates in prior years about whether to use a tax professional. I just wondered what percentage here uses a pro vs. software or 'other' (I dunno, maybe for someone who is themselves a CPA? If you don't put 'other' there's always someone who doesn't fit!)

 

[BillSears]

Mine isn't complicated enough to use a professional. I've only got normal wages and interest as income and just a mortgage and some charity as deductions.

If I had lots of strange situations I'd probably use a pro.

 

[rentayenta]

We used to use Turbo Tax until we owed last year. Now we go to a professional. Saved us a TON!

 

[wdwfan16]

We have a strange situation WRT our taxes so we use a CPA. I would do them myself otherwise.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I am a professional. I specialize in complex individual returns. Since I have a minimum fee, if my per-form fee for them drops below my minimum they are getting too easy and I "fire" them. I do suggest they use a tax program or go to a service such as Jackson-Hewitt or Liberty, but definitely not H&R Block.

 

[Cruise]

I work in a CPA office. I spend all day using the professional software to input peoples' information and generate their tax returns. I could do the same for my own but, frankly, I don't want everyone in my office knowing all of "my business." So we have another CPA that we've been going to for years to do our returns.

I would do them at home myself if it were a simple matter of W2s, standard deduction, etc. But we have rental properties that are in another state, so we end up filing a Schedule E for those as well as a second state return. And I just don't feel like dealing with it after doing everyone elses' taxes all day long.

 

[apietrak]

I have a finance background but still use an accountant, I have my own business and have my accountant do the business return and personal return as well. I'm pretty sure the software would do the same job, but I do like having somebody I can call whenever I have a question about something finance related or tax related, such as deductions, retirement savings, etc.

I use a local professional, not a big agency. I feel as though I'm not paying so much for the annual return prep as for his advice whenever I need it as well.

My personal returns usually run about $300-$350 for my family.

Hope this helps,
Anthony

 

[Golf4food]

Unless you have complex situations a professional service really isn't necessary - the online software walks you through everything very clearly these days. There are, however, times when it is better and safer to go with a pro, but for 90% of your Average Joe families out there, it is overkill.

 

[ohlas]

Person over computer, everytime.

I love taxes (well not paying them), but it is so much fun to find the hidden puzzle piece to the tax rebate problem.

 

[Princess April]

We are part of the "Average Joe" family and we use TT... works for us!

 

[daisy2jae]

I use a professional. I have two businesses, school credit, w-2's, and medical write offs. I feel much better having someone go through mine. My friend uses software and she loves it. It's easy and cheap. She only has child credit and w-2's. I would say it depends on what you have.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

Dh and I have used Turbo tax fopr 5 year swithotu a problem. I have taken tax classes before and the first year I did it on paper while we did it on turbo tax and it came out the same, so I feel pretty confident about it.

 

[scrapquitler]

We always use a CPA. But DH owns a business, we have property in two states and our income is in the bracket of 'more likely to be audited' because of the income and the fact that we do home office deduction and some of our other deductions. We figure that the extra money paid is insurance that the taxes are being done right, in a way that benefits us the most, and if God Forbid we ever get audited, we have someone to represent us.

 

[Pakey]

I'm an accountant but I do not specialize in taxes. We go to a tax accountant. My husband owns his business and we have rental property; I prefer having an expert in the tax field review my work.

 

[DebMcDonald]

I think if you have normal taxes, nothing out of the ordinary you can do one of the tax programs, but we have rental property and I'm self employed and we only do a tax professional. Our first year at me being self employed, we were barely getting anything back (and I thought we would probably owe) so we hired a tax professional and I ended up with $7000 back, that's a huge difference and the $350 I pay makes it more than worth it.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Wheever I accept a new client I always ask to see the prior year return. I would say that for more than 50% of my clients I will do amended freturns for at least the latest year for errors they made which cost them (not the government) money.

 

[DMickey28]

I have always done ours with TT, this year as well but I am questioning if I should just take them somewhere. I think they are good though ...

This year just confused me for some reason. We moved and lived in three states, two no-income tax states and one income tax state. We bought our first house so we have minor Mortgage interest (which didn't go above the standard deduction) and a small property tax payment. We also had a HSA distribution and a 401K disbursement along with the normal student loan interest and child credit.

The only thing that throws me honestly is the HSA because we didn't contribute this year at all, only had the HSA January through October when DH switched jobs, and we had a small distribution on the HSA. It's a 1099-SA in Dh's name only but it automatically spits out a form for me too ... I've check and double checked and tripled checked my inputs on the TT software and it's all correct so I don't know what it's doing that unless it is just supposed to.

I am pretty confident I have it all done properly though ... Turbo Tax really does walk you through it very easily.