# TurboTax or Accountant?



## Robert H (Mar 27, 2007)

*If you can keep track of almost everything yourself is it better to use TurboTax to file? *They do use a line-by-line system.


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## CoopersDesignCo (Nov 14, 2007)

We use an accountant. He does both our personal and business taxes, and of course, is up to date on all the law changes, etc. So we'd rather leave it up to the experts. Also, they only charge us about $150 to file, and we know for a fact it's a mess!
Better to leave it up to the experts in our opinion!


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

We use an accountant that my father has been using for over 20 years. Charges us $200 for filing federal and state taxes. You are not in business to do taxes, leave it to them and save yourself the headach in case of major mistakes. 

Also, I hear if you use a program and you are a business, you are more likely to be audited. That is speculation though.


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## veedub3 (Mar 29, 2007)

I am very thourough when it comes to keeping track of receipts but I rely on my CPA to do all the tax work. They are experienced and in the event of an audit, they will handle it. I feel it is just a small expense to pay to have it done right.

Katrina


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## Robert H (Mar 27, 2007)

so with a CPA do you just bring all of your monthly expense reports, sales/tax/shipping cost numbers and say have at it? 

I do a pretty good job of keeping my records but I don't know how to rationalize paying someone to file for me when I have everything in pristine order.


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## MardiGrasTexan (Oct 11, 2008)

Robert H said:


> so with a CPA do you just bring all of your monthly expense reports, sales/tax/shipping cost numbers and say have at it?
> 
> I do a pretty good job of keeping my records but I don't know how to rationalize paying someone to file for me when I have everything in pristine order.


Ask some business associates who they use. Get a few names and give them a call. They'll tell you what you'll need and how much they will be charging you. It's just like finding a good doctor. 

As someone else said, leave the tax work to the pros. They know the tax laws better than you and it's one less headache for you to deal with. Use that time to promote and sell. Also, if you intend to grow, it's better to have an accountant grow with you, that way they know your business and you won't miss a beat. After you've used an accountant for a little while, you'll wonder why you didn't before.


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## lizziemaxine (Nov 14, 2007)

Robert H said:


> I do a pretty good job of keeping my records but I don't know how to rationalize paying someone to file for me when I have everything in pristine order.


It not just about keeping good records. It is knowing the very complex tax laws and how to apply them to your business. There are a lot of grey areas in taxes/accounting and it takes a professional to interpret them to your advantage.


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## Dan K (Nov 15, 2006)

An accountant or CPA is also better versed on finding you tax breaks/deductions as well. If you spent $150 or 200 on an accountant and realized that much money or more in deductions because you did, you'll be in good shape.


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## debz1959 (Jul 29, 2007)

I don't like Turbo Tax, it actually takes me longer to do our taxes because I have to figure out the software first! 

My best suggestion is get a very good day to day accounting program (I personally prefer Peachtree over Quickbooks) and just enter the info into the plain tax forms. 

I was a corporate accountant for over ten years and I've been doing personal/business tax returns for over 25, so if you have any basic questions feel free to PM me.


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## greyhorsewoman (Jul 19, 2007)

I've been keeping my records on Quicken and filing with Turbo Tax for about 15 years. However, I was a bookkeeper in another life. 

Depending on how comfortable you are with your bookkeeping, using a professional is probably the better advise.


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## selzler (Apr 4, 2007)

I use quickbooks but have a accountant do the taxes. 6 years ago I did my own taxes and also had an accountant do them and her way I came out over $4k better because of the way laws read and were miss when I did them.


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## allhamps (Mar 15, 2007)

I've always used Turbo Tax to do my personal taxes so last year when I had to file my first business return, I figured why not? It was not easy. I keep very good records also, but because I was not familiar with "bookeeping", my expense categories did not easily align with the questions I was being asked in Turbo Tax. It seemed like I had a million different expense categories and Turbo Tax only had 4. My dilemma, how do I consolidate down to make sure I'm putting the RIGHT expenses in the RIGHT category so the IRS won't come after me. It was not fun and I ended up conferring with a CPA anyway. This year, I'll let the professionals take care of it.


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## Bougie (Jul 12, 2005)

I'm in the middle of using TurboTax. So far it rules!!!
It's making everything so easy. You just answer simple questions and it takes care of both Fed & State tax forms. I was stressing out about doing these taxes, but now I'm not. My tax information is relatively simple for a business, so I should have little or no problem with this. I don't have complicated bookkeeping or expense info. I'm filing as a sole proprietorship. I also read some books and government publications on small business taxes to understand the Federal & State taxes for a sole proprietorship. I like to be self reliant and do things myself. I assembled my own computer from parts I bought and it works perfect. I do all my own computer repair. I also learned how to do my own plumbing repairs and probably did a better job of it than a hired plumber would have because I took my time and was very careful to do it right. That turned out perfect too. I can count on myself to do things right more than if I get someone else to do it, because a lot of other people don't do things right and I don't think they care as much as I do. I have a very high IQ so I figured I should be able to do these taxes and save some money. Plus I should know all about how these taxes work whether I do them myself or not. I don't want to be ignorant about the tax laws or anything else that's important.


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## skylandprinting (Jul 3, 2007)

I keep pretty good records. Also, most of our income and expenses go through our business checking account. We did Turbo Tax, mainly because it is rather straight forward as to what we do. Income in one column, supplies in another (which is 80% of our outgoing money), etc. Pretty cut and dry. If we did hundreds of thousands of dollars in a week or month, maybe. But right now this is working just fine for us.


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## Bougie (Jul 12, 2005)

I finished using Turbotax to complete my taxes. It worked great. I had to answer a ton of questions. Most were easy. A few were a little tricky. Thankfully I don't owe any penalties. Everything is totally cool. I'm very delighted with the results!

I think this stuff would've taken a ridiculous amount of time and work to do without Turbotax and it would've been hard not to make mistakes. Seems like it would not have been feasible.

It's a relief to have this done finally so I can move on and get back to just doing my business. 
I'm two months ahead of the April 15 deadline. I RULE!!!
YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!


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## DDPerez01 (Feb 16, 2009)

i use an accountant...saves me time, i honestly couldnt be bothered to do it myself, plus he finds me breaks that i probably wouldn't have known about and on top of it all hes really no that expensive about $140 
just my opinion


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## Robert H (Mar 27, 2007)

I am having the hardest time finding a local accountant that is not a rip off! Weird.


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## curiousity (Feb 15, 2009)

Finding good accountant is like finding a good car mechanic: can be difficult, but well worth the effort.

A good accountant can possible save you many times over the amount that you spend on them by making you aware of tax write offs, proper procedure, or just even peace of mind.

Find that good accountant and then focus on other things that would probably a better use of your time like marketing, networking, brainstorming, designing, etc for your brand.

YMMV.


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