Quote:
Originally Posted by ken0042
So speaking of the various options, is there a big benefit for a couple with a simple return to use an accountant over just using Intuit? For example my wife and I are empty nesters, one T4 each and just RRSPs and small charitable donations.
Is the price comparable; and/or is there extra value in what an accountant could provide? (Aside from a potential helicopter ride.)
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The answer is always, "It depends."
I will say that anyone who says they have a simple return, is wrong. Straightforward, maybe, but definitely not simple. Seriously speaking. What type of "simple activity" ends up as 15-30 pages fully printed out, with only a handful of inputs? That's what a full T1 return is. Many people don't realize they've only ever seem simple/summarized versions of their full T1 return and how damn badly we need tax reform.
I don't think it's an issue to continue doing preparing and filing yourself. But there's value in occasionally, getting a professional to do it (not those cheap ones that cut way too many corners) for a year or two and quietly compare the return you would have prepared vs the tax preparer + review pattern differences with the tax preparer before going back to filing on your own. You might be surprised at how many differences are noted. It's not a guarantee that whatever you pay would be how much you potentially save and more.
Even if someone only has a few slips, the return can still be ####ed up royally. I've seen it happen a lot more than I like. Filing "correctly" wise, CRA only cares if you file incorrectly in a manner where you underpay. They laugh and move on if you file incorrectly and overpay taxes. That's where a good (not crappy) tax prepper is supposed to comes in. They might be aware of "small" things that have significantly bigger impacts than the tax payer originally realizes.
I'm sure there's a lot of posters who are doing a good job, but based on my experience, self filing taxpayers who can file on par with H&R block is uncommon and I don't think H&R block/Liberty tax etc. should be considered at the standard people should be comfortable with. The taxpayers missing out on hundreds to thousands of dollars in deductions or entitlements or putting themselves at risk to the tune of thousands of dollars a year are sadly, a lot more common. It's akin to how common many people expect a clean bill of health at an annual body check up, but get a rude awakening instead.
I've seen people fail to apply for carbon tax refunds. I barely know how that's possible, it should be nearly automatic. I've seen people drowning in their circumstances but also be "lazy" in adding a child to the DEP section of their return. The kid's already like 4 and they're not aware they are screwing themselves over for CCB to the tune of nearly tens of thousands of dollars over those years, let alone GST and other entitlements. I've seen people fail to realize that foreign stocks in a Canadian brokerage need to be reported on a T1135 and they have over a million in foreign investments which means tens of thousands in potential penalties over many years. Some can't be damned to grab medical/charitable/digital news etc. slips thinking it's maybe worth a hundred bucks at most and blown away when they realize what they're giving up a year. School kids with two slips with scholarships that qualify as non-taxable, but have incorrectly filed as taxable instead, so they pay hundreds of dollars in taxes they don't need to. I've seen pension transfers missed which means hundreds to thousands of dollars of tax efficiency. Many people (DIY or those ultra cheap options) just rollover the prior year return, click autofill and move on with a "hell yeah! I'm done!".
There are many tick boxes/forms aren't slips, but are part of the complexity and can be very costly if done incorrectly. I've had people ask me how it's possible that my work and theirs/someone else's could have such extreme differences.
I'm more than happy if more and more taxpayers don't need a basic service from tax preparers because they are doing things at a level where the CRA isn't technically able to take advantage of them. Unfortunately, it's the opposite and the CRA gets a ton of wins they don't deserve.
And seriously, most preparers are tax payers too. They derive no joy in seeing the CRA pick on taxpayers like they're picking low hanging fruit. But the perception of tax preparers from many people do not reflect that at all.