Tax returns

[Slothy]

Also, I hate preparing tax returns, and most people who do their own by hand are idiots.

So you're saying that paying someone extra money to do something you can easily do yourself, and taking an even greater loss, is idiotic?

Hmm.

No, I'm saying if you do your own AND do it by hand you're an idiot nine times out of ten. The majority of people (at least in Canada) don't have a return that is complicated enough to justify having a professional do it, but even with simpler ones there's the potential to miss something that a cheap tax program will literally fill in for you, and you'd pay less than you would to have someone do it for you.

Trust me when I say that every accountant out there has seen a tax return that a friend or client filled out by hand at some point and asked them to look over and laughed at them. So when I've seen people make simple errors that anyone who isn't a professional accountant can make that would never happen if you did it electronically, I feel pretty secure in saying people who do it by hand are idiots. Maybe you won't screw it up, but why even take the chance? Especially when stupid little errors can cost you hundreds if not thousands depending on your income, or end with an audit not working out in your favour.

And if you have anything more complicated than an income slip from your employer and a few simple investments (ie: you have a lot of capital gains/losses, own a business, have children with disabilities, stock options and more because I could keep going on for a while here), it might be best to have a professional take a look at it at some point. Taxes can get extremely complicated very quickly and I would never trust myself to be up on all of the rules around more complicated sources of income than simple employment income, or interest and dividends on investments, or even all of the tax credits and deductions which are available as well.