5 Reasons To Not Use Self-Prepare Tax Software.

Self-prepare software is a nice, convenient and a cheap solution for the yearly return. I don’t want to really get into the fact that it should only be used on very simple returns. When you acquire assets such as a home and/or investments and even when you have children you really should migrate your yearly preparation to a professional. Someone who is either an Enrolled Agent (EA) or CPA, and never use a national brand unless the person you are talking to is an EA or CPA and has a reputation of quality work (Click for why you shouldn’t use “stripmall” tax people).

There are some BIG THINGS to consider before you even purchase one of these softwares and attempt to prepare your own return. The first thing to consider is that if you make a mistake and the IRS sends your a soft audit notice, it is up to you to answer it. Although, many of the notices that go out are incorrect. Many taxpayers just pay the notice, because of their limited knowledge of tax code, assuming they must have made a mistake. Often when we look at a notice and the return, we can save taxpayers hundreds to thousands of dollars.

1. What is the Cost of your time, let alone the patience to go through the motions?
   1. When you consider the cost of hiring a professional versus your time and cost of just the software, hiring the right professional is really not much more of an expense. Our returns start at $160 for 2015 returns.
2. Tax code is very complex even the best software (professional or self-prepare) in the world you still need a human analysis of the data.
   1. We as professionals study and restudy every year with the ever evolving tax code.
3. NEVER file your part-time or full-time business with self-prepare software.
   1. This is a huge RED FLAG to the IRS and in an audit the agent will almost certainly assume you do not know what you are doing and it will be very hard to overcome that.
4. You sign the return and sign that you prepared the return.
   1. There’s no help when that notice from the IRS comes. Many of the notices that go out are generated by computers based on the numbers match to a system. Some of these letter are completely erroneous and many notice are significantly less than the amount stated on the letter.
5. Aren’t there better things you would like to do?
   1. Leave tax preparation to the professionals, would you rewire your home without hiring an electrician. Why would you take a chance with the IRS?

We prepare and file returns in any state. We’ve seen many different situations and not only file your return, but will educate you on what happens on your return. We are Nakowicz Financial and CinchTax; we’re here to help!