I just finished an article from Smart Money Magazine called “10 Things Your Tax Preparer Won’t Tell You“. Apparently there are a few reasons for people to do their taxes on their own:

1) Tax preparers make more and costlier mistakes than the average person doing their taxes. “According to a study of IRS data, 56% of professionally prepared returns showed significant errors, compared with 47% of those done by the taxpayer. And audited taxpayers who used preparers owed an average of $363, while those who filed themselves owed $185.”

2) Tax preparers are way less likely to take new clients after Feb. 1, after which they are slammed until the tax deadline.

3) The person you hire may not be the person who does your taxes. It could be some temp employee or some random person overseas. (Not that either of these things are bad. I just doubt that this is ever stated outright, making me think if if a person or firm can be dishonest about who is doing my taxes they are probably capable of larger dishonesties).

While I may have gathered my paperwork in December, I have not gotten the party started with the taxes. But it looks like I’ll be doing them on my own for some good reasons besides saving some money. Meanwhile, have you started your taxes yet?

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