There are all kinds of information on the internet that is meant as good advice. There are arguments that you should use an accountant for your taxes then there are arguments that you shouldn’t or don’t need to. So is there a right or wrong to either of these arguments?
The complexity of investments
There is the argument that says if you don’t have a lot of investments then why should you need an accountant. This in part is true and would be a valid argument if the only tax confusion that arose centered around investments. With Canadian tax this is far from the case.
The Canadian tax laws and requirements can be so complex that it isn’t a matter of it being that way just when it comes to investments.
Self-employed and small business
This is a whole new segment of the tax situation that a lot of Canadian tax payers face. Being self-employed may mean filing in conjunction with the personal taxes and this can create a whole gambit of new problems. What can and cannot be claimed as an expense and what gets put where on the tax return. It is true that there is a step by step tax guide. However, not many people want to come home after a hard day a work or spend their weekends devoting hours to going through the step by step process that is no easy matter.
What is missed can really count
Then there is the argument of there being so many wonderful potential tax breaks for the Canadian tax payer. That is if you can decipher them and know if you can meet the criteria. Plus there is often a lot of preliminary steps that have to be taken to be sure that one can qualify for the potential tax breaks. Take for example the tax breaks for kids that are put into some special programs that may qualify for the tax break. If the program doesn’t meet the criteria that is allowed then the tax break is useless.
Getting the most from tax breaks has come down to almost becoming a wizard at know what is available to you and the proper way to go about claiming this. That is where the real challenge lies and this is where the expertise of the accountant comes into play. A lot of people now are becoming much more astute at tax planning on a personal level.
For the individual that has no assets, no investments and no kids maybe they can get away with doing their own taxes. More often than not however they can end up making a mistake and end up with an assessment that doesn’t jive with what they submitted on their tax return. Now they need some sort of advice and expertise to rely on. Without having used an accountant to help prepare their taxes they may now be in a situation where they need one to help them determine where they went wrong.
Then of course there are those tax issues that may arise that lead to a potential audit or some other recourse by the CRA. In most cases this means the expertise of an accountant would come in mighty handy.
For the small price that it costs to have an accountant tend to the tax filings, most find it well worth it, even if is just for the peace of mind of knowing they don’t have to deal with this tax obligation on their own.
