What are the reasons why people go to accountants?
Too busy and don’t want to deal with taxes or bookkeeping
Many business owners are busy running their business and don’t want to spend weeks learning about taxes or bookkeeping. It’s much easier to call an accountant and let them deal with the books. Accountants spend all day every day managing books and filing taxes, they are experts when it comes to these things. Not only do they spend less time than the owner would, they will probably find errors or ways to maximize benefits.
Too complicated and want to get books or taxes in order fast
Sure, anyone can do their own taxes and manage their own books, but if they can make more doing something else and pay an accountant to handle everything in a much more efficient manner, everyone benefits. The owner can make more money, and the accountant can get it done without any headaches, for a fee that is reasonable.
What If I Have a Simple Tax Return or only a small 1-person business?
Even if you file your own taxes, it still costs money unless you make less than a certain amount. $50,000 currently is the amount to qualify for free filing of taxes. But with inflation and higher cost indexes, most people will make more than 50k and will have to pay to file their own taxes using some software online or on a disc.
But I heard there are some free or cheap software out there to file my taxes!
Yes, depending on how simple your return is, it might be better to just file your own taxes. But many times, people read a question wrong or they don’t understand the requirements to qualify for tax credits or expense business costs and end up costing themselves much more.
Taxes and Bookkeeping errors are on YOU!
Remember, the software to file for yourself is just a tool, ultimately you will need knowledge of tax laws to be certain that no deductions or credits were missed. If you take a credit when you weren’t allowed to, you will be penalized by the IRS and might be banned from ever taking it again in the future. Don’t get Audited!
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/irs-audits
