💱Taxes Doing taxes yourself or hire a professional?

[Spicy Nug]

I’ve been doing taxes myself for my shop for years. I just keep track of everything using quickbooks and it seems to work well enough.

Sometimes it still feels a little time consuming so I’ve been thinking about hiring one of those tax services. I heard you can get better savings on taxes that way but some of these tax prep people cost a fortune year round so is it really worth it?

 

[Dopious]

I would never do my own books by myself as I am not trained in that field it is going to cost me a lot.

Better hire someone that knows it and saves you both time and money knowing the rules of the game.

 

[RiskyStuff]

Hire anyone, whoever is cheap.
They all have similar education.
If one messes up, try another.
That's what I'd do.

If you spend 2% of your profit on that, it's not a problem.
From my experience, tax offices aren't very rigorous. But it's just my experience.

 

[UnusualSubstance]

I failed maths 3 times sooooo grateful for accountants.

 

[Incarnate]

I have an accountant I couldn't imagine filling all the forms out myself!

 

[SilverClouds]

I’ve been doing taxes myself for my shop for years. I just keep track of everything using quickbooks and it seems to work well enough.

Sometimes it still feels a little time consuming so I’ve been thinking about hiring one of those tax services. I heard you can get better savings on taxes that way but some of these tax prep people cost a fortune year round so is it really worth it?

Oh, is it very complicated to do it yourself? Any pointers or tutorials? You're based in US? You need to do that only once a year or monthly?

I'm all for someone doing it for me but maybe if business structure is very simple + some bot/app does that or at least simplyfies then maybe it's cheaper for very small business idk. It's true that it's tricky to do this stuff yourself but it's also tricky to find good specialist as well, they charge way too much and if taxes are super complicated then maybe it means your business is in a bad jurisdiction in the first place.

So we're back to @Fudge Brownie 's question - can I get rid of accountant and just get some app / AI to do this for me? After my clients got rid of me? I also want to optimize costs you know, I run a business too, I don't have an employment contract .

 

[t2van]

UK if your a sole trader you can keep your taxes pretty simple to just be

Total Income X
Toal Costs Y

This Whats left = Z

Z is taxed at whatever. You pay.


I think that side of things if your earning something extra on the side is easy enough.


If you have a business with costs and what not just get an accountant. If nothing else it's more money you dont have to go give to the tax man, it's the first real "hire" I think any business owner should do because it can save you so much money in the long run as well as get you out of trouble.

You can claim for things you never thought of, as much as they cost they do end up saving you money and it's their job to know changes and the law, personally it's the only legal way of getting around not actually paying as much tax as you should!

Not just that but they can tell you if you have an outstanding invoice you have not collected, you can have audited records which practically are legally binding to take to lenders, financing or whatever it maybe to help with the sale of the business, getting funds, going to the bank.

It opens up alot of doors. Once and if you get large enough hiring your own internal account just makes life much easier again!

 

[roydan]

I have a tax advisor and an accountant, the accountant handles the forms and ongoing documenting of invoices and expenses, and the advisor optimizes expensed and tax benefits so we pay what we have to and nothing more.

 

[SilverClouds]

I have a tax advisor and an accountant, the accountant handles the forms and ongoing documenting of invoices and expenses, and the advisor optimizes expensed and tax benefits so we pay what we have to and nothing more.

Yeahh I think in Poland it's the same, accountant won't do tax optimization. So you need accountant AND tax advisor, but these are hard to come by. So maybe AI accounting app + real human tax advisor to check if it's all ok and do the actual optimization would be nice AI-inspired option.

 

[roydan]

Yeahh I think in Poland it's the same, accountant won't do tax optimization. So you need accountant AND tax advisor, but these are hard to come by. So maybe AI accounting app + real human tax advisor to check if it's all ok and do the actual optimization would be nice AI-inspired option.

Some accountants do tax optimization, but a good advisor is worth a lot.

I prefer separating the jobs, because the "net savings" of the advisor are transparent because I can easily attribute his savings to advice he gave me, and to his work on the accountant's reports.

 

[Ozzyzig]

I'm in the UK and do my own taxes as a sole trader (I also have a 9-5 job). As @t2van said, it's a straightforward process.

My expenses are that low that I'll choose the trading allowance instead (even with claiming some expenses, it's still better to claim the trading allowance).

However, when I eventually get a new laptop, I'll be claiming at least 60% of that as a business expense.

It depends on how confident you are on the calculation side of things.

 

[SEOfirestarter]

It depends on the country. If you’re in the US and have complicated tax situation then I’d say hire a professional. If you’ve got something simple a startup business with barely any expenses you can do them yourself.

 

[Champagne]

Hire a professional. If you make a mistake, it's usually going to be very expensive, and it would have cost less to hire an expert to do it for you.

 

[TheVigilante]

Mostly hire a professional whos really good at what he does plus he knows a bit about our industry so he can properly file the taxes

 

[t2van]

Mostly hire a professional whos really good at what he does plus he knows a bit about our industry so he can properly file the taxes

@TheVigilante doesn't believe women can do maths nor let's a woman touch his books by the sounds of it

Rightly so

 

[Spicy Nug]

@TheVigilante doesn't believe women can do maths nor let's a woman touch his books by the sounds of it

Rightly so

Rightly so? What kind of sexist remark is this?

 

[t2van]

Rightly so? What kind of sexist remark is this?

A dark humour one

 

[Berry Scary]

A dark humour one

I don’t think you know what dark humor is.

 

[t2van]

I don’t think you know what dark humor is.

Well I sort of do as it's exactly that.

 

[Berry Scary]

Well I sort of do as it's exactly that.

Damn, men really can’t tell any decent jokes.