Thursday, January 31, 2019
When to Hire Someone to Do Your Taxes
twocents.lifehacker.com: Advancements in tax software make it easier to file your taxes without the help of a professional, as does this year’s increased standard deduction and simplified 1040. But there are still plenty of circumstances when you’d want to hire someone.
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3 comments:
I had to file taxes for the first time this past tax season, and when my father gave me the option of having the family tax filer handle my personal taxes, I politely declined. I personally think that it is really important to understand the state of my personal finances and why and what money the government is taking from me. It was a pretty difficult process (and I had to file for an extension in order to really read all the instruction forms to complete the paperwork), but I understand how that side of finances work a little better now. I now have a handful of other forms I will have to fill out, because of having employment in multiple states, but I still intend on going through the process myself. However, I can see how the scenarios described in this article may complicate things enough to want to hire a tax preparer. Still, I think it is silly that the government has created a tax system so complicated and confusing that the majority of people need to hire someone to figure out the paperwork for them.
I have had the “opportunity” to file my taxes the last three years due to work and I have to say that for me personally my father had me file my taxes on my own for the first time and it didn’t go to hot. But it was a great experience learning how to and where my taxes went I think it’s really important to have that first hand understanding. Since then I have taken the opportunity to have the help of my parents accountant to do my taxes. Now sure I feel as though I don’t have quite as good of an understanding as I did before and with things shifting and changing I sometimes wish that I had a different understanding but the trade off of making my life so much easier than it could be. I don’t know for how long my parents will let me use the accountants services
I have occasionally considered hiring someone to do my taxes. As a freelancer, I can have employers in the double digits, both 1099s and W2s. It is, generally, a total nightmare. It takes me about a week to sort out all the forms, receipts, and other itemized deductions. I use an online tax service, which charges fees for filing additional items past a certain level. It is expensive and exhausting, and I never get money back. The curse of the independent contractor. Having read this article, however, I am pretty well convinced that hiring someone to do my taxes would most likely make the process substantially more expensive and frustrating. Perhaps if I were in a higher income bracket, it might work out, but at that point I would probably make an LLC anyway. That said, if I had needed to deal with this level of complication when I was just getting started, I would not have been able to handle it on my own. These days, I cannot consider seriously the idea of shelling out at least $450 more to file taxes.
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