> I've had an accountant do my taxes since I was 19, and
> feel like I've probably saved a pretty substantial amount
> of money...simply by ensuring I'm doing them correctly
> and, more importantly, on time.
Can you give one specific example of something you wouldn't have been able to do correctly and on time yourself, that has at least $1000 in value to you? I've been doing my own taxes (with a six figure tax bill and often 15+ 1099s) for ten years; I'm pretty confident I've not made any meaningful errors other than typos or transposing labels on the odd stock entry, a mistake that would cost me $0 even if audited.
I--at least for a W2 worker who is a US citizen living in the US--have a uniquely bad tax situation, and I'm pretty confident that I'm not missing any major tax breaks, short of doing absurd accountancy.
The first time I used an accountant, they immediately found that I had not been taking advantage on a SEP-IRA. Which immediately saved me several thousand dollars in taxes that year. While it's not something I couldn't do myself the next year, it was admittedly something I never knew about beforehand.
Can you give one specific example of something you wouldn't have been able to do correctly and on time yourself, that has at least $1000 in value to you? I've been doing my own taxes (with a six figure tax bill and often 15+ 1099s) for ten years; I'm pretty confident I've not made any meaningful errors other than typos or transposing labels on the odd stock entry, a mistake that would cost me $0 even if audited.
I--at least for a W2 worker who is a US citizen living in the US--have a uniquely bad tax situation, and I'm pretty confident that I'm not missing any major tax breaks, short of doing absurd accountancy.