As 2021 nears yearend families begin to ask the question who is going to do my income tax return?

There are a multitude of sources that can assist you in getting your income tax return for 2021 prepared.

If you have a very simple return Turbotax offers to let you fill out the form on line and the return is prepared free of charge. Possibly you have an accountant or bookkeeper that has been preparing your return. The cost of having a return done by a professional has been increasing dramatically in recent years. You might consider purchasing one of the Turbotax Systems that is appropriate for your situation. Turbotax offers several systems that can be purchased at Walmart, Costco, Target, book stores, and other outlets. The cost for an individual return with no business income is around $60. The cost for an individual with business income is about $80. The cost for those having more complicated returns and partnership returns is around $100. Also Turbotax systems can be purchased and prepared on line with no disks involved. I have been using Turbotax for about ten years now with no problems. Turbotax systems guide you through the return and runs several error checks. They also offer professional representation in the event of an audit if the taxpayer elects that option and pays a fee at time the return is finished. Turbotax usually offers one free State Return with the purchase of the Federal Return system. After the returns are completed on the taxpayer’s computer, they can be electronically transmitted to the IRS and the State Revenue Department. The IRS and State Revenue systems notify the taxpayer of acceptance within a short time usually 48 hours.

There are other tax systems similar to Turbotax offered at Walmart, Costco, and other outlets. I am not familiar with them and their cost.

The big tax preparation companies have a multitude of offices in all the larger communities like H & R Block are much more expensive than using Turbotax or just out and out doing the returns yourself. Individual preparers and CPA’s are many times more expensive than the tax preparation companies. I was a CPA and had a fulltime job with a college, I was hired in January by a tax preparation company to do their partnership and corporate returns and supervise three of their eight offices. I was paid a low hourly rate barely above the minimum wage with the understanding if I stayed until the end of the tax season April 15th I would share in their profits. The reason they had so many offices was they located them near military bases and colleges to catch the taxpayers that just had W-2 income and were desperate for their tax refund. The offered to give the amount of the refund to the taxpayer within a week if they signed an agreement that the refund check would come to the tax preparer. In exchange for that service, they charged high amounts for that service like $150 regardless of the amount of the refund. As an example, say a person had a $900 refund and paid $150 to get their refund within 5 days. They would get $750 and the tax preparation service gets $900 in about three to four weeks from the IRA. Compute the interest rate that is over 15% for just one month or an annualized rate of 180%. The tax preparation firms also offer taxpayer representation to the IRS if the taxpayer is audited for a fee, they also guarantee the taxpayer will not have to pay any interest to the IRS. All that means is that if the IRS does not accept your return and charges you additional tax , interest , and penalty, the preparing company will pay the interest only.

Remember I told you above I would be paid a bonus by the preparation service if I stayed until the end of the tax season April 15th. A woman that had worked for that service told me, “Good luck with that offer of a bonus, I have been working for them for several years and no one got a bonus, the owner closes down all but the main office by the end of the season.”
That was a true statement after the W-2 rush season around the military bases the owner closed those offices down, no bonus for those managers. Then about a month before the end of the tax season he closed all of temporary offices and ran everything through one office. No one received a bonus.

Good luck in determining what tax preparation option is best for you and your family budget