How do I know when I should get someone else to do my taxes?

[Anonymous]

I have always used TurboTax and I feel like it guides me well enough to get it right. But I don't know what I don't know. How do I know when it is worth spending the money to get someone else to do my taxes. And won't her or she just ask me the same questions TurboTax asks me? FWIW, I own a home, have two kids, have a nanny, have a (very modest) investment account, still paying student loans, low 6 figure income earned mostly by my spouse (I work very part time).

[Anonymous]

If you want, try something else and see how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want, try something else and see how it goes.

+1, but I think you'll be surprised how expensive it is, and how little it matters. If you are comfortable with turbotax and don't have your own business or rental property then I would not switch.

[Anonymous]

My threshold was when I dedcided it was too complicated and I was dreading it. (employed, member of an LLC, joint custody, a million other little things that added up to me not wanting to tackle it).

[Anonymous]

Your tax situation sounds straightforward so you probably don't need someone yet. We hired someone when one of us started a business, needed a SEP, we have a household employee, have a second home, and are selling stocks. It was just getting too complicated for me to do anymore.

[Anonymous]

You don't make enough/have a complicated enough situation - it's not worth it. Whatever more you might get in a refund would likely be eaten up by the fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't make enough/have a complicated enough situation - it's not worth it. Whatever more you might get in a refund would likely be eaten up by the fees.

OP here and this is what I was thinking. Okay, so maybe they squeeze out a few more dollars but I pay for it. Thanks all, I will keep on keepin' on.

[Anonymous]

I started using a CPA the year I got married because that changed my situation enough to warrant the expense.

[Anonymous]

We have a really complicated return -- over 50 pages long.. and for laughs one year I did it in Turbotax then sent the same info to a CPA to do it. I arrived at better number -- he used the wrong type or depreciation for one of our rental properties (Turbotax guides through stuff like this).

At your income level, it's not worth it for the slight savings you'd get.

[Anonymous]

I think Washington Post did the same thing several years ago. Turbo Tax, by hand, and several CPAs. All the CPAs arrived at different numbers, Turbo Tax was a bit ahead of the pack. I think an accountant/brokerage firm got slightly more $$ back, but their expenses were $1000.

My situation is almost identical to you and we've happily used accounting software (Turbot Tax, but Tax Cut is cheaper) for years. One caution though, there are several things on Turbo Tax you'll want to read carefully esp. the state deduction for 529 savings is buried.

[Anonymous]

I mostly use Turbo Tax. Every few years I come up against something new that I can't figure out, and I go to the accountant. Usually costs me in the neighborhood of $1000, so well worth avoiding.

[Anonymous]

We use Turbo Tax each year. We get a free copy each year through our brokerage/investment company.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat.

I'm going to try use TurboTax and see if the return generated is the same or better than the accountant we use.

If it is the same or better, I'll drop the accountant.

[Anonymous]

My tax return this year is 50 plus pages long. We have schedule C, 1099s W2s, plus partnerships - trusts and LLC - K1s, home office deduction, stock sales, house sales and probably a half dozen other complications I haven't mentioned.

I use H&R Block's software (used to be called TaxCut) which is essentially the same as TurboTax. No problems. But I do refer to IRS documentation sometimes to double check the software catches everything.