Here’s why I hire an accountant to do my taxes

From MSN Money/The Motley Fool – By Christy Bieber – 

Tax-filing season has just come to a close, which is a big relief. My returns have been submitted, and I’ve fulfilled my major obligations to the IRS for the year. Now all that’s left for me to do is pay my accountant and pick up the returns that she filed for me.

See, while I could theoretically file my taxes on my own, I’m always happy to write a check out of my bank account to my tax professional. There are three big reasons why that’s the case.

1. My taxes are more complicated than most people’s

The biggest reason that I choose to hire a tax professional to file my taxes is because they are pretty complicated. See, my husband and I both own S-corporations and pay ourselves a salary and dividend from them. This means we need to file business returns as well as personal ones. We also have some investment properties and we itemize deductions, so we need to declare specific expenses as tax deductions.

Taking care of all of these issues is not as easy as just using an online tax-filing service. It would take a lot of time and effort to learn how to complete all of our forms correctly and to make sure we’re getting the maximum amount of deductions and credits. My tax professional knows the ins-and-outs of the law and the filing process for our complicated returns so we’d rather just entrust her to take care of it.

2. I’m afraid of getting audited and owing money if I DIY

Since my husband and I are self-employed and his business is one where he collects cash, I fear that we’re at a higher risk of capturing the attention of the IRS and triggering an audit. I don’t want that to happen but, even more, I don’t want the IRS to find we made mistakes and now owe a lot of money.

By working with an accountant, I feel more confident that we are submitting the correct information so if we are audited, we wouldn’t owe a ton of back taxes. Our accountant would also be there to help us through the process.

3. Learning how to file my own taxes would be a waste of my time

Finally, the last big reason why I hire a tax professional to do my taxes is because it would take a lot of time for me to do them myself. And the wasted hours simply are not worth it. It would cost me more in lost working time to do the taxes myself than it costs me to pay my accountant to do them for me.

Ultimately, there are good tax-filing programs out there and many people can take advantage of them rather than paying a tax professional. But for those whose situations are more complex, getting the right help may be the best course of action and may be well worth the fee that an accountant would charge.