Too Late for a Tax Preparer?

February rolls around and you still have not done your taxes - you figure you will call up the accountant your coworker recommended four months ago. Sound familiar? Not so fast my friend. Chances are, a good tax preparer is completely unavailable by early February - the ones that do take you are probably not in demand, or worse yet, may outsource your return overseas!

The best time to line up your local tax pro is in October or November. The tax preparer can give his undivided attention and look at your past returns and current financial situation. A really good one will help you make last minute adjustments to help you the current tax year! This may include consulting you on bonus deferrals, 401k changes, and taxable losses. Waiting until February or March is way too late. At best, they may spot minor errors or help you decide on proper deductions.

That said, all hope is not lost. While we cannot recommend the rent-a-preparer franchises (e.g. H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, etc.), the majority of taxfilers have relatively simple taxes. A good program like TurboTax should be more than sufficient and is much more accurate than a rent-a-preparer! Even "complicated" events such as the birth of a child or a new home purchase are easily handled by today's tax programs.

We will look at some of the pitfalls of using tax preparers in a future article. In the meantime, see some of our software recommendations to the right. Happy tax filing!