by Laurie Mueller

Created on: July 30, 2008

How to determine if you should do your taxes at H&R Block

You should get your taxes done by a professional if you can't do them yourself. For most families without home based businesses or other complicated problems a professional tax preparer is not necessary.

If you have a home based business, including direct sales, you will need to determine how comfortable you are preparing your taxes yourself. If you can do your taxes yourself but they are slightly complicated, consider a computer program to help. H&R Block offers their product "TaxCut" which allows you to have online access to a preparer if you find them too difficult after you have started and there is the availability of electronic filing which will speed up your refund. There are however additional costs for those services

There are other complications that could require a professional tax preparer. These include determining if you can claim a deduction for a parent, which college credits are right when you or your children are attending college, other higher education that you ar paying for, or buying or selling real estate. Whenever a situation occurs that you are unsure of walk into an office and ask them to prepare your taxes, or review prior years' returns. H&R Block will not charge you until they have actually prepared your taxes, looked for all the best deductions, and are ready to file. If you were right, then leave and file your self prepared taxes. If not, have them file the taxes. Review what they did to determine if you can prepare your own taxes the following year or if you still need a professional preparer.

If you do use a professional preparer, H&R Block is one of the best there is. Their people are required to undergo extensive training, and even those that have been working there for years are required to take classes and update their knowledge. They also offer the standard guarantee, and an upgraded guarantee at additional cost. The "peace of mind" guarantee will cover taxes as well as interest and penalties if the event of preparer error. I worked for them for three years and only saw one person have to correct anything for preparer error.

Many people use a tax service to rapid file and get a refund anticipation loan. Those are the "Rapid Refunds" that a lot of services offer. If you could do your taxes yourself and this is the only reason you are using a tax service, then price shop the product, however make sure to use a reputable service. The fees are very high for these products and unscrupulous services have been known to charge multiple hidden fees. Be sure that you need your money within a few days. Most people can electronically file their taxes and have a refund directly deposited into their bank account within three weeks for substantially lower fees.

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