Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Professional Tax Preparer

Whether you want it or not, the tax season happens every single year, which means only one thing – you’ll soon have to face a pile of financial forms, stress out and hope for the best. At the same time, you may escape the hassle of tax returns by enlisting the assistance of a professional tax preparer, who’ll do the majority of the work for you.

Surely, for someone, who’s used to dealing with his own taxes without professional support and whose financed aren’t that complicated, paying a few hundreds of dollars to a company or an individual to relieve the pressure of tax returns and take care of the paperwork that’s totally doable for an average adult, might sound a bit useless.

But why do more than 60 percent of American taxpayers choose to remove the burden of the tax preparation responsibility from their shoulders and turn to the qualified specialists to take care of it? These are the reasons to hire a tax preparer even if you think that you may totally complete the task on your own.

Reasons to hire a professional to deal with your taxes

1. Mistakes will cost you more than professional’s services

Taxes are confusing to a lot of people, especially for those who have not been doing them for too long and who have complicated income. Making mistakes when filing out the forms, missing a piece of important information that doesn’t look that significant to an inexperienced eye is particularly easy when you don’t understand the basics of the tax return process, don’t know which information to gather and provide, and particularly when you put everything off until the last moment.

The most innocent mistake will cost you a certain fee. Thus, it’s definitely wiser to avoid financial responsibility and paperwork hustle by hiring a tax preparer to complete your tax returns. Even an experienced pro won’t charge you more than $100-$150 if your taxes are pretty straightforward.

2. Keeping up with tax regulations

Tax law isn’t that easy to start with, but the frequent changes in its provisions, the norms that switch requirements, and additional regulations that enter into force are even harder to keep up with. Tax preparers are quite good at remaining well-informed when it comes to tax law and explain the most recent changes in tax regulations to their clients.

3. Situations that complicate taxes

There’s an imposing list of legal circumstances, statuses and financial situations that make tax returns more complicated, oblige taxpayers to prepare even more detailed financial reports, as well as provide certain tax preferences an uninformed citizen wouldn’t be able to make the full use without the professional’s assistance. For instance, those who’ve adopted a child may count on a significant tax credit from the IRS (it was $13,400 per child for 2015 financial year), but only for the eligible adoption-related expenses documented and reported appropriately in the tax return forms. Mariage may lead to certain readjustments in tax returns as well, as partners who have different incomes may decide to file together to pay less than they would if they were to file separately.

Thus, if you’re married or got divorced within this financial year, if you have children or other people you’re legally responsible for, if you’re running a small business, if you have multiple sources of income, if you’re employed in multiple states, if you’ve inherited something below the federal estate tax exemption or if you’ve adopted a child, you should consult with an experienced tax preparer or even a lawyer depending on the complexity of your circumstances and the level of expertise required to deal with your tax returns.

4. Tax preparer makes the process a lot less stressful

Knowing that you may rely on an expert, whose professional life is dedicated to taxes, and that you’re not left alone with the pile of forms and numbers is quite relieving. Let’s just be honest, hiring a tax preparer makes the process easier, less stressful and time-consuming, which is something a lot of people are ready to pay for.

5. You’ll save money

Remember the endless list of circumstances and technicalities that make the tax season unbearable for the majority of taxpayers? They also bear a lot of conditions and preferences an educated professional capable of assessing the individual’s financial situation and tax status may use in order to that individual save money by finding applicable deductions. More often than not, people who hire tax preparers end up saving more money on deductions than they pay for the preparer’s services, not mentioning the frustration and the hustle they avoid by doing so.