Selfemployed, do you do your own tax return, or use an accountant?

Question

Selfemployed, do you do your own tax return, or use an accountant?

Answer 1

Invest in a do it yourself program like 'Taxcalc'.

Answer 2

Personally I do it myself. The self assessment online form pretty much works it all out for you, it's easy.

The main thing an accountant will do is make sure you are claiming everything you can against tax. But if you put yourself in the picture, which isn't that hard when the tax office give you pretty much all the info you need, I don't think an accountant is essential, particularly if like me you have a small business with a low turn over.

Hardly seems worth paying somebody £200 to fill in a form I can do myself.

At the end of the day it's down to you and how confident you feel in doing it yourself.

Answer 3

Use an accountant, they'll save you more money than they cost.

Answer 4

I used to use an accountant.  But, I did not find it to be a good value.  For one, he did not spend as much time on my return as I am willing to, and I find that the more time and effort I put into it, the more advantages I am able to find.  A lot of legitimate deductions and tax credits get overlooked, no matter how good the accountant.

Plus, he charged us $700 just to do a basic sole proprietor tax return.  It might have been worth it, but all he did was fill out the forms.  What he didn't do was advise us on decisions we would have to make in regard to our business that could have huge tax implications.  We got hit with a $10,000 tax bill because of that, and we could have made different decisions with a different outcome.

For that amount of money, I was willing to become educated in tax preparation.  When I get stumped, I pay an hourly rate to an enrolled agent, which is a CPA with additional training and certification who is eligible to represent taxpayers before the IRS.

This have saved my family thousands of dollars in tax preparation fees, and I think, thousands of dollars in bad decisions we didn't make!

Also, I always use tax preparation software, but that is not all that I do.  The software is only as good as your knowledge.  In other words, it does the calculations for you, but you still need to know what to look for.  I study as much as I can on the IRS website and from other financial resources.

Answer 5

i use an accountant. the tax tables are soooo complicated and you might miss a deduction if you do it yourself

Answer 6

The key issue that most people miss is that filling in the form is probably only 5% of the work that an accountant has to do.

the other 95% is preparing the figures ready to put on the form ie profit and loss accounts,balance sheet, tax computations etc.

A tax return filed from a reputable accountant always looks better than one filed by the individual himself and the accountant is far less likely to make basic errors which often lead to an enquiry.

Furthermore if the business expands rapidly an accountant will be able to take the relevant action within the statutory time limits thus avoiding penalties.

Answer 7

You can do your own return but it is time consuming and you do not know any or all of the legal money saving wrinkles. An accountant will usually charge you less than he saves you.