Three Signs You Need Professional Help To Prepare Your Taxes
Although you may have handled your taxes solo every year of your life, your circumstances may change and leave you in need of professional tax preparation. How can you tell if this is true in your case? Check these three signs to see if any of them sound like you. If they do, professional tax help will make your life much easier.
1. Time
If you're working multiple jobs and taking classes part-time, you probably don't have much time left over for your social life, let alone for tax preparation. And if you're juggling a full-time career with several children, you probably don't want to even think about taxes, much less spend hours poring over forms while your eyes cross. If your life right now is too full to give tax preparation the time it deserves, you'll want to hire a tax preparer to ensure that you don't miss out on any deductions or make expensive mistakes on your forms.
2. Complications
Itemized deductions require many careful data entries, extensive documentation, and concentrated attention. If you have a lot of itemization to do, you may wish to leave it to a professional. Other complications you may encounter are things like cashing in on stocks and bonds, calculating tax amounts from multiple contract jobs (especially complicated if your main income stream is contract or freelance work), juggling rentals and childcare, or cashing in multiple stocks and bonds.
3. Big life events
If you've just gotten married or divorced, the resultant merging or separating of assets and income streams goes beyond the level of "complications" to the level of "nearly hopeless tangle." These big life events often combine complications with a lack of time and incentive. If you've just gotten divorced, for example, and are working two jobs and picking up the kids from school every day, you may be lacking in not only time but also motivation to sort out your tax situation. Fortunately, you can rely on a professional tax preparer to help you get your taxes organized and your forms filled out legibly and on time so you'll get the most benefits from tax deductions and returns and avoid penalties.
Does your life have something in common with any of these scenarios? If not, you can continue to file your own taxes with confidence. But if you see any of these three signs in your situation, the wisest decision may be to hire a professional to keep your forms and deductions straight and maximize your tax returns.
Contact professionals like Jeff Baker & Associates, PS for more help.