Benefits of self-filed tax returns

Evan Mathias

The federal income tax return deadline of Apr. 30 is right around the corner, which means tax centres and accounting firms around Windsor will be busy filing clients returns.

While some choose to file by themselves, many hire accountants to file for them. Each option has benefits.

“Besides the financial gain which is first and foremost it keeps your mind sharp as far as I’m concerned,” said Tracy Jones, who has done her own tax return for 16 years since moving to Canada from the UK. “I would rather do it myself. It’s very simple, it’s very basic.”

While the process may not be difficult, the looming paperwork and filing is what is unappealing to people, according to tax partner at Miles & Co. Chartered Professional Accountants, Ian Murphy.

“Yeah I think it’s one of those things that people assume it’s a lot worse than it is,” said Murphy. “Sometimes you go through that one painful audit or you miss something the one year and you get dinged with something or have a bad tax repair at some point in time and that kind of hurts you. I think that makes people gun shy from handling it in the future.”

However, Murphy agreed with Jones about the simplicity of the process and added that generally, returns only take around a half hour.

“It’s not easy to screw it up, you can handle it yourself for the most part,” said Murphy. “There are situations where expertise is needed, but I would say 80 per cent of the files out there, people could do themselves without too much pain.”

Jones had a different opinion on why people hire different organizations to file their taxes.

“I’m thinking maybe time, because people are just so busy especially if they’ve got children and they’re always running here, there, everywhere it’s easier just for them to just collect everything and just hand it off to somebody else,” said Jones.

One complaint from residents about hiring someone to do their taxes for them is that the accountants aren’t as thorough as they might like, which is something Jones alluded to.

“They probably wouldn’t be as thorough as I would be,” said Jones. “Me personally I would say I’d probably take more time.”

Murphy contested the point by saying that he doesn’t think anyone in the business would make errors on purpose. He added that accountants are there to help, not knowingly make mistakes in tax returns.

The tax partner also denied that accountants at his firm take a percentage of people’s tax return as fees because that is prohibited by the Chartered Professional Accountants Canada guidelines.

He said they do charge a fee to do tax returns, but the fee is usually quoted before the return is filed.

With the deadline fast approaching, Murphy is expecting to file more tax returns as stragglers scramble to file.

“This last month for April it’s going to be the stragglers… It’s those guys that really don’t want to pay or are kind of dreading tax season,” said Murphy. “The last month is a bit of a tough road.”