When you leave your tax preparer's office each year, there are two very important questions you should be asking yourself.Question #1: How secure is your personal information after you leave it with your tax preparer? Probably not very secure! Do they leave your paperwork lying about the place, accessible to all, after they have completed your taxes? Are their computers adequately protected by firewalls and effective anti-virus software? Is there adequate background checks done on their employees, who obviously will have unlimited access to your sensitive personal information? The honest truth is that you really don't know.Also, you should be concerned about hackers. These criminals have been successful in hacking into supposedly very secure government computer systems; the Office of Personnel Management, and even the IRS itself come to mind immediately. These people know that they will have access to a treasure trove of personal information if they were to hack into the computers of H&R Block, Liberty Tax, or any CPA or other tax preparation office. So what is to stop them from hacking into your tax preparer's computer, which obviously will be a lot less protected than the government's computers?By doing your taxes yourself, you could be taking a really big step in protecting your sensitive personal information, and keeping it out of the hands of criminals Question #2: Are you receiving all the tax credits and deductions that you are legally entitled to? Chances are, you aren't! Not taking advantage of all your tax benefits, could literally translate to thousands of dollars being left on the table. The reality is that tax professionals are usually very busy at this time of the year, trying to get as much returns done as they possibly can, ensuring that they maximize their incomes. Consequently, the time they allocate for researching specific situations will be very limited, and because everyone's personal circumstances differ, then chances are, you might not be receiving all possible tax benefits available to you, based on your particular circumstances. Doing your own taxes, however, blesses you with the luxury of time, wherein you can do your own research, including making your own calls to the IRS, to determine what tax benefits might be applicable to you. This can literally translate into thousands of dollars in your pocket.Learning to do your own taxes is not as daunting a task as your tax professional might want you to perceive it to be. Actually, tax preparation software has come a long way in the past few years, making it so easy for you to prepare your own taxes, that it's virtually impossible not to be able to understand the process, even with absolutely no knowledge of tax laws. There is an entire myriad of relatively inexpensive tax preparation software available today, which makes this all possible, and each will allow you to prepare and e-file multiple tax returns.
About the Author: Milton G Boothe is a federally-authorized tax practitioner who has technical expertise in the field of taxation and who is empowered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before all administrative levels of the IRS for audits, collections, and appeals. He is an IRS Enrolled Agent with over twenty years of tax and financial accounting experience, including several years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is also a British certified Chartered Accountant. Boothe is currently employed in private tax practices where he helps people resolve their tax problems, minimize their taxes, and routinely represents the interests of taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.