Why It Pays to Pay a CPA to Do Your Taxes
Back in summer 2020, Intuit’s TurboTax reported an explosion in registered users, to 22 million from 14 million the year before. And is it any wonder why? Its intuitive software can make do-it-yourself taxes a breeze, which can help individuals and even small businesses save plenty on up-front costs to get their taxes done.
But small businesses especially might be costing themselves considerably down the long term by not paying a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to do their taxes.
DIY tax software has come a long way and makes the basics of tax preparation easy enough that almost anyone can do it. However, this fact ignores a couple shortcomings of tackling your taxes yourself — not to mention everything CPAs do that go above and beyond software solutions.
As you start to think about the 2021 tax season, here are a few reasons you should consider getting a professional on your side.
3 Big Reasons It Pays to Have a CPA Do Your Taxes
They’re Pros
We’ll start off with the most obvious upside to CPAs. Namely, they’re professionally trained to prepare taxes and do it frequently.
Chances are you’re not, and you don’t.
As cruel as it might seem, perfectly innocent human error, if egregious enough, can still be enough to trigger an IRS audit. Considering most small business owners aren’t familiar with taxes in the first place, and also have to keep the rest of their business running while setting aside time to figure out their taxes, there’s simply a higher possibility of getting it wrong.
At a bare minimum, CPAs are going to do a more thorough job, which means peace of mind for you.
They Can Tackle So Much More Than Taxes
Tax professionals can provide you with traditional tax preparation services if that’s all you need. But chances are that’s not all you need.
CPAs can also help you with a number of other associated services, whether it’s providing year-long accounting, creating financial statements for your stakeholders or helping you properly store and organize your tax and other financial information.
That’s just scraping the surface of what some CPAs can offer.
They’re Tuned In
CPAs have to pay attention to a pair of things that ultimately will benefit their clients. One is the evolution of the filing process itself — CPAs are going to be up-to-date on the latest and greatest tax-filing technology, not to mention any new rules and regulations involved in sending in the annual filing.
But much more importantly, and much more impactful to your bottom line over time, is that they’re constantly keeping tabs on changes to the tax code. That, in tandem with their working knowledge of your company, means they can help you create tax plans each year that put you in position to leverage every deduction, write-off and other tax breaks that you qualify for. That often can result in annual savings that more than justify the cost of having a CPA do your taxes.
McManamon & Co., which provides tax, accounting and other services to small- and mid-sized businesses, knows full well just how much small businesses struggled in 2020, and thus how much they’ll be looking to save in 2021. But small business owners who trim their tax-preparation costs up front in the next few months could end up slashing many more dollars off their tax-savings potential over the next few years.
Don’t wonder if your small business could save thousands on your taxes. Just ask. Call McManamon at 440.892.8900 or contact us online, and let’s talk about what we can do for you — and how we can make it work within your budget.
Tags: McManamon, McManamon & Co., small business, small business finances, small business taxes, taxes | Posted in McManamon & Co., small business taxes, taxes