WHY GOING TO A TAX PROFESSIONAL MAY SAVE YOU MONEY
Why I believe seeing a tax professional is Important
My husband and I visited a tax professional this year for the first time ever. I was hesitant to visit a professional being the bargain shopper and cheapskate that I am. We both decided it was the best thing to do in our situation just to make sure that there wasn't something we were missing. There definitely was and our visit that day saved us more than we thought possible. In fact the money saved going to the tax professional that day more than paid for her services.
Who prepared our taxes every year?
I am the one who always does our taxes and I have been doing them ever since we got married 11 years ago. It used to be exciting to get our W2's and do our taxes expecting a refund but the last few years have been different. Each year when we filed we seemed to owe money. We have had issues for the past few years with having to pay on our taxes and were using a tax software program to file. Although it had always been simple and worked great before, things just were not so simple for us anymore. So we decided to give the tax professional a chance.
How did we decide where to go?
We asked around for referrals from friends who went to professionals. My brother in law suggested we visit one that he recommended and we decided to give her a try.We set up an appointment and went to her office just to see what she would have to say. I was hesitant before going about what might happen, I honestly expected the entire visit to cost a lot and the experience to be basically useless. I truly expected the tax professional would do exactly what I had done and then explain that the numbers we had come up with were correct. This would then leave us paying a tax professional to do what I could have already done cheaper. I expected that we would be paying fees for services on top of the taxes we already owed but that was not the case.
What was our experience and why do I recommend seeing one?
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the whole experience, the tax professional was friendly and informative she didn't just do our taxes she filled in some answers to questions we had and advised us on some different strategies to prevent future issues. There were a few basic things that we were not considering or that were causing our issues when doing our own taxes.1) The first one was the tax software I was using was asking for the student loan amounts I was paying, but it was not correctly adjusting the amounts in the system. I was shocked I had actually never considered this was an issue. So when she recalculated with this amount it brought the amount owed down significantly.2) She also explained to us the different withholding options and there are a lot more than you would expect, and how they could help us to correct future issues in advance.There are so many factors in tax preparation that the average person does not understand and it can be so important to seek guidance from someone who understands better, someone who is well trained to catch the things that you may not. If you own your own business or have many itemization's this is especially important. She also advised that as a tax professional they will meet with individuals and talk over things throughout the year to help you prepare better. For business owners this can be huge to help prevent catastrophe or unexpected expenses from creeping up on you.
Schedule an appointment if you need some tax advice
There are some things that are just worth paying a little more for like knowing you are filing correctly. however in our case we ended up paying far less than we had expected thanks to a visit to the tax professional. There are some things that we are not all experts at and this can really be a huge money mistake to try to do this on your own. I hope my advice helps you to consider whether doing your own taxes is really the best option for you or whether it may actually benefit you to go and see someone this year. I hope this helps in some way to save you some money this year and prevent you from owing large amounts like we thought we did in the future. Also a return may be amended for a few years after you have filed so if you believe you may have made a mistake you can always have a professional look into it for you as well.I am not a tax professional and do not claim to be, but the purpose of this blog posting is to share my experience and remind you that there is a good reason that tax professionals exist. Sometimes it can benefit you financially to see one if your tax situation is more complicated, and it can potentially save you a great deal of money.