Now, this is a little embarrassing for me to admit
December 26, 2006
but I still use a tax preparer. I scrutinize every other aspect of my financial life but I still hand over all my paperwork to my parents who take it to the CPA who has taken care of our taxes for the last 15 years. I know, I gotta grow up and do my own taxes. Every year I say that this is the year I’m going to get grown and just do the taxes on my own. I’m just not sure that this will be the year. It’s because my dry-run numbers never match his and the refund expected is never as much as his. He also discounts the amount he charges me every year for the 4 forms he works on to a flat $50. I have to say, 50 bucks for getting upwards of $500 more than expected? Well, maybe next year will be my year because THIS year I’m going to claim the correct number of allowances.
Hey Ducky, as a CPA, sometimes I can say that having a CPA do your taxes has both advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
– You don’t have to worry about it.
– If you pick the right CPA, it is probably done right.
Disadvantages:
– If you pick the wrong CPA, you might lose out on some extra money or possibly get in trouble with the IRS. CPA’s generally aren’t held responsible unless they are entirely negligent. So ultimately, it is still your responsibility to have your tax form be correct.
– It costs money.
My recommendation for most people would be to have a CPA do their return, but familiarize yourself with some basic rules to make sure you and your CPA don’t miss out on anything. For example, your CPA might forget to ask you if you bought a Toyota Prius this year, which would generate a tax credit…and there are hundreds of things like that.
Hey Daniel,
I think that we’ve got a good CPA and I do dry-runs of my taxes every year but I definitely need to study them more closely this year because I still don’t understand is how my 1099 works in conjunction with my W2. Does the standard deduction apply to the whole filing or just to the W-2?