Obligatory photo of some tax forms.

Consulting a professional tax return accountant who can provide guidance and advice on strategies for minimizing your tax liability is a great way to learn how to take control of your tax filing.

take control of your taxes
Obligatory photo of some tax forms.

Doing your own taxes can be intimidating. There is a lot to understand and the real risk of a penalty if you do things wrong. That shouldn’t be a deterrent, however. Doing your own taxes is not something that you need any special degrees for and anybody can do them.

The key is to set aside enough time to learn whether you need to E-file IRS 1099 Form, or 1040. Then when you know which one is right, take a day to put everything together and go through the process. You can even use some software to make it easy.

Consulting a professional tax return accountant who can provide guidance and advice on strategies for minimizing your tax liability is a great way to learn how to take control of your tax filing.

In this article, we will go over some of the reasons you should be doing your own taxes.

You’ll save money

Even the simplest situation tax-wise is going to be quite pricey to pay somebody to do for you. Accountants are not cheap and you will pay a good chunk of money to them on top of what you might owe. If you get a refund then a chunk of it is lost to the accountant.

Granted, they have a lot of expertise and staff to help them so they can get it done quickly. Although it might take you longer to do, you are going to be able to do it yourself and then save that money. Even a simple tax return will cost you hundreds on average. As your situation gets more complex, the higher that number will be.

In many cases, filing will be free since you just follow the instructions provided with the form. For more complex cases, you just need to pay for some software which will still be a fraction of the cost of an accountant.

Your refund will come faster

Your accountant is likely working many 14 hour days during tax season to try to get everybody’s returns in order and filed on time. This means that your return is likely going to take weeks to get filed. Those are weeks in which your taxes would have been received, filed, and the refund sent out. In fact, you can often get your refund within just a few weeks of your filing. That can translate into a month or more saved instead of waiting.

Get your paperwork sorted out as soon as you get things like your W4 and other papers for reporting from work or clients. Then file and enjoy your refund while people are scrambling to get filed before the deadline and wait further for their refund.

Enjoy extra privacy

Sending your tax returns to a accountant likely means that a few people are going to see all your sensitive financial and personal information. Since many of those people are temporary workers, you are putting a lot of trust into them being professional and not taking your information for other purposes.

When you file yourself, nobody else has access to your information. Even at the IRS, it is likely going to be a computer that reviews your return and not a person.

For more great Dinksfinance articles on Taxes, read these:

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MANAGE YOUR MONEY TOGETHER

Here are some simple guidelines for DINKS to build wealth:

1) Collaborate: Meet regularly to talk about money, set goals together, track and monitor them.

2) Understand and respect your partner. Take time to understand your partners values about money.

3) Watch the numbers. Get a budget, monitor your spending and track your net worth.

4) Max your retirement. Maximize contributions to your tax deferred retirement accounts.

5) Invest in stock. Stocks perform better than bonds or cash.

6) Avoid high interest debt. Credit cards and title loans are financial cancer.

7) Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

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