At this time of the year, you may be probably gathering up your canceled checks, credit card bills, brokerage statements, etc. Soon, you’ll meet with whoever fills out your tax return. Will you wind up overpaying your tax preparer? Not if you go about your own preparations properly. The more work you do, the less you’ll pay. If you handle as much of the accounting work as possible, you’ll wind up paying only for tax preparation, which will be a lot less expensive.
Suppose, for example, you sold some stocks last year. If you go over all the records and figure out when your purchased those shares and how much you paid, it will make life a lot easier for your tax preparer. The same is true is you made a dozen mutual fund switches last year. Or if you sold a home; Get your records together and determine what you paid for the assets you sold–that’s better than paying a tax preparer hundreds of dollars to do the same work.
Don’t be afraid to talk about money to your tax preparer at the beginning of the process. Ask how much you’ll be charged. Truly professional preparers will tell you, upfront–they may even show you a published fee schedule.
