Current Promotions
Fellow tax professional Dave Ramsey recently preformed a survey of 2000 taxpayers; about half of who prepared their own returns, and the other half who had them prepared professionally. This is what he found:
When you use software to file your income taxes, there’s a moment, an instant just before the point of no return, when you silently wonder—what if?
What if I didn’t enter the numbers correctly?
What if I miscalculated?
What if I missed a deduction or credit?
What if I claimed a deduction or credit I’m not eligible for?All that uncertainty is one of the downsides of self-filing. Other disadvantages can hit you where it hurts most—your wallet.
Reduced Refund
Since most folks aren’t tax experts, it’s easy for them to miss deductions or credits when they self-file. They are also more likely to take the standard deduction instead of itemizing their expenses. Either of these mistakes could lower their refund.
Take a look at these numbers from our recent survey of 2,000 of Dave’s Facebook fans.
- Self-filers got an average refund of just less than $1,500.
- But folks who had their returns professionally prepared had an average refund of nearly $1,800!
- Procrastinating self-filers, those who filed their returns during April, got an average refund of more than $1,800, while those who used a pro got an average $2,600 refund!
Those folks potentially lost hundreds of dollars by trying to save a buck and doing their taxes themselves. It doesn’t seem like such a smart choice now, does it?
Magnified Mistakes
The cost of DIY tax prep isn’t limited to the size of your refund. Your mistakes can also cost you in the form of penalties and interest.
The IRS checks every return for a signature (manual or electronic) and math errors and cross-checks all sources of income that are reported via W2s, 1099s, etc. So if you fail to report any income or enter the wrong number in the wrong column, the IRS will call you on it.
And if it turns out you owe taxes, by the time the IRS notifies you, penalties and interest will have already inflated that amount. You’ll be charged a penalty for paying late and you’ll be charged interest from the date the tax was due until the date of payment, and it compounds daily.
By working with a tax professional, you’ll not only have confidence that your taxes will be done right the first time, you’ll also have peace of mind that your tax professional will be there to help you if the IRS has questions about your return. File with [consumer] tax software, and you’re on your own if the IRS comes knocking…
The evidence is clear; trying to save pennies with DIY tax software can cost you thousands of dollars in unclaimed refunds, penalties and/or interest. And one of the most important losses is your time. Remember, even if you are using a “free” DIY tax service, you still have to take the time to for research, record keeping, learning the program and double checking all the figures. It obvious that receiving a larger well deserved refund is more valuable than smaller refund. However, the old adage that “time is more valuable than money” couldn’t be more true especially when the IRS reports that it can cost a taxpayer up to 32 hours simply to prepare an annual tax return!
So, save yourself time, money & the stress of preparing your income tax return yourself and contact an R&G Brenner tax professional today. We offer a free consultation for your current year tax returns as well as your 3 previous years returns. Plus, you can qualify for many promotions that can save you money & even make you money.
Source: daveramsey.com