When doing your own taxes makes sense… and when it doesn’t.
Monday, March 29th, 2010All Things Financial
Volume 16 No. 3
By Charles P. Jones, CFP®
Tax deadline is April 15, so if you haven’t begun gathering your annual tax records it’s time to do so. Every year, however, people’s lives change—they buy and sell houses and move, they take new jobs, have kids, buy and sell stock. Those and dozens more reasons might give you cause to hire a tax preparer.
It’s worth going over the primary reasons why some people should get help with their taxes and others can continue going it alone.
Should you do it by yourself? If you meet the following circumstances, you can probably do your taxes by yourself:
- You work for only one employer who gives you a W-2 tax form each year.
- You rent your residence and don’t own a home or vacation property.
- You don’t have kids or other dependents.
- You don’t have any complex investments such as a partnership, a trust or extensive stock holdings.
- You really like numbers, are willing to investigate annual changes to the tax code and double-check your work.
- You’re comfortable doing computations by calculator or by hand, or by using tax software on your computer or online.
For do-it-yourselfers with computers, the Internal Revenue Service’s Free File program is aimed at some 95 million taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $57,000 or less in 2009 to prepare and e-file their federal tax returns for free. E-file, the IRS’s online tax filing service, is available to both tax professionals and individuals with compatible home computer tax software.
Should you seek help? It generally makes more sense to get help with your taxes if:
- You’re buying or selling property.
- You own a business or rental property.
- You get regular income from a trust or partnership.
- You trade investments frequently or have a complex portfolio.
- You’ve undergone a major financial impact during the previous tax year, such as a divorce, death of a spouse, an inheritance or a move of more than 50 miles for a new job.
- You are supporting a child between the ages of 19 and 24 who is a full-time college student.
- You don’t have time to do it yourself.
- You are subject to the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT).
- Your income has increased by a considerable amount from the previous year.
You’re still legally responsible for your return even though you have professional help, so it’s important to choose a qualified professional to help you. The IRS gives the following suggestions for finding a qualified preparer:
- Ask how they charge: Avoid preparers who claim they can obtain larger refunds than other preparers. If your returns are prepared correctly, every preparer should derive substantially similar numbers.
- Don’t believe promises: If a preparer guarantees results or bases fees on a percentage of the amount of the refund, be suspicious. Tax preparers aren’t allowed to charge a contingent fee (percentage of your refund) for preparing an original tax return.
- Ask what preparers will need: Reputable preparers will expect you to provide receipts and other paperwork if they need it to justify the return they’re preparing for you. You need to keep scrupulous records.
- Make sure you know exactly who’s preparing your return: It’s OK if your preparer has onsite staff assistance in preparation of your return, but the person you hire needs to be the person who reviews your return and signs off on it.
- Investigate your preparer’s record: Check with the Better Business Bureau, the state’s board of accountancy for CPAs, the state’s bar association for attorneys or the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) for enrolled agents.
- Check your preparer’s credentials: Find out if the preparer is affiliated with a professional organization that provides or requires its members to pursue continuing education and holds them accountable to a code of ethics.
- Stay aware of tax scams: Newspaper business sections and news programs focus on abusive tax shelters and scams. So does www.IRS.gov. If you have a preparer encouraging you to get involved in tax avoidance strategies that are overly complex, check them out before you agree to jump in.
Concerned about the qualifications of your tax preparer? Call The Chuck Jones Team at The H Group: Chuck, Sheri, Jill, or Susan, to set an appointment to review your situation &/or for referrals to qualified tax specialists. (503) 291-1313
March 2010 — This column is produced by the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community, and is provided by Charles P. “Chuck” Jones CFP®, a local member of FPA.
Noteworthy
During the recent recession, many have found themselves back in the job market after age 50 due to layoffs or changing demands at their employers. Yet as life expectancies lengthen, a late career change isn’t always a negative. It may be a welcome chance to renew, re-educate and restart a full life.
It’s possible that in the future, an over-50 career change might become a common event, maybe even a desired event in our society—which means it’s definitely worth planning for.
A visit to a financial planner might be a good first step in planning a move to a second career or dealing with a sudden change in your career prospects. You need to plan for any possible change in income up or down in any opportunity you entertain. You’ll also need to plan how you’ll afford any training you’ll need—college or otherwise—in making that successful transition. To make an over-50 career transition successful, it’s all about preparation. So here are some ideas:
Start with research: One of the best-detailed, up-to-the-minute career resources for the types of jobs that exist in this country and their salary and hiring forecasts is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. This extensive online resource not only lists major career groups, but the leading occupations in it. If you haven’t been in the job market for awhile, this kind of research is a good way to reset your knowledge of your industry and whether its hiring prospects are bright. This database also lays out the need for the necessary training required to reach certain salary and career levels.
Check industries that are friendly to older workers: Healthcare and education are just two industries that are more welcoming to older workers. U.S. News & World Report has come up with its own list of popular over-50 occupations, and it’s a good starting point for people looking for flexible scheduling and other workers their age in the field.
Network: Face-to-face contact with people in your target fields is important. If you can, check out events at professional organizations in that field or attend casual networking functions to learn more. Being someone over 50, you can get an idea of whether there’s true age diversity in a field and how all those groups work together—or if you’re simply the oldest person in the room. Obviously if you feel welcome, networking will give you a better idea of which companies with someone with your maturity and experience might fit in.
Emphasize your up-to-date experience and training, not your birthday: Career experts suggest that older workers should lead with work experience and skills and leave off all but the most essential timeframe information. You’re not there to lie about your work experience, but the reason young workers are so valuable is that they’ve gotten the most recent training and they are generally less costly to employ. That’s why older workers should lead with every strength that makes them attractive to employers and should de-emphasize descriptors that broadcast age.
Make your perspective an asset: If you are already familiar with the industry you’re targeting, you can use your extensive work experience to position yourself as a problem solver. If you know what a company really needs in your chosen job, say so in the cover letter and be clear in stating why you’d be a great solution.
Consider timing issues at your current employer: If you are up for a salary review soon, it might make sense to have a better idea of what you’re worth in the marketplace. Also, as the end of the year is coming, you might want to use up any money in your flexible benefits accounts for medical appointments, glasses or dental work before you leave.
Don’t be shy about approaching managers who aren’t hiring – publicly: The best jobs aren’t always advertised. Instead of limiting your options to companies with posted openings, send letters of introduction to managers at firms where you’d really like to work. And again, make your perspective an asset—if you can see what a great role for you would be in their organization, tell them about it. The worst thing they could do is not respond. The best might be an interview that puts you on their radar screen.
Get in shape: It’s not just a matter of looks. Healthy employees cost less. It makes sense to lose weight if you need to and upgrade hair and wardrobe not to look like a twenty-something, but to fit in comfortably at the organization where you want to work.
Decide what you’ll be doing with your 401(k) and other retirement funds: You may not want to make any moves for awhile, but it’s good to talk with a CFP® professional about whether you’ll be moving that money to private accounts. Also, make sure you know when you can enroll in the company 401(k) and other retirement offerings at your new employer.
Secure your health insurance: You might wait a few months to a year for new health coverage to kick in at a new job. You might need to buy private insurance until then or go onto a spouse’s health plan in the meantime.
March 2010 — This column is produced by the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community, and is provided by Charles P. “Chuck” Jones, CFP®, a local member of FPA.
