Visit H&R Block online and you can prepare and file your federal tax return for $9.95 – a price that includes e-filing the information directly to the Internal Revenue Service. For $4.95, you can file your state tax return the same way. Visit Staples online and discover “Quicken Turbo Tax,” which also walks you through your tax return, then e-files it to the appropriate tax agency.
And for those still craving at least a bit of the bricks and mortar experience, visit most office supply and computer program retailers and the shelves are lined with an assortment of “Quicken Turbo Tax” products, as well as the popular “Kiplingers Tax Cut” series and others. Just take them home and get to it.
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It sounds so simple, you might think certified public accountants specializing in tax preparation were going the way of the dinosaur.
But they’re not.
For as many new computer programs as there are on the market – there are just as many new IRAs, 401ks, mutual funds and college savings plans – all carrying potential tax ramifications. What may be going the way of the dinosaur is the straight-forward tax return.
Judith P. Higgins is a CPA with an office on Elmwood Avenue in Cranston. She has had her own business preparing taxes for 10 years. And it has never been busier, she said.
”My business keeps growing every year,” said Higgins. “A lot of people do not understand the tax laws and if their return is at all complicated, they won’t attempt to do it. There are so many different nuances to the tax laws, especially if you have children and you’re saving for college.”
If more people are doing their taxes at home, then others are finding their way into the offices of CPAs like Higgins.
”Last year, I got so busy I ended up turning away some new business,” she said. “This year, I’ve added staff.”
Higgins remembers one business owner who bought a tax preparation program, intent on filing his own taxes.
”He called me a week before April 15 – and ‘Federal Expressed’ me a package right away,” she said.
The client thought he owed several thousand dollars, but ended up with a modest return.
”He was more than happy to pay my fee,” Higgins said.
Robert J. LeBlanc, of Robert J. LeBlanc, Ltd. in East Greenwich, does not believe he has lost business as a result of more people preparing their taxes on their own, but his business may have changed in some ways.
”The surveys have shown that a lot more people are filing online or using do-it-yourself tax forms,” LeBlanc said. “But those people may have been doing it manually in the first place.”
Like Higgins, LeBlanc finds that the complexities of the tax world are enough to keep him very busy.
”We may be doing fewer easy returns, but more of the complicated ones,” he said. “There is so much analysis that needs to be done.”
LeBlanc said clients clearly are looking for speed – and for a return as quickly as possible. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are comfortable filing by themselves. Many, he said, seek out the peace of mind found in getting professional assistance.
”This software is only good for someone who already has some idea of what they are doing,” he said. “That’s my opinion. Even clients who are doing it by themselvesit seems they are willing to pay as much as they have in the past, to help them on the computer.”
Herbert Fine has been a CPA since 1963 and has been preparing taxes for clients before that. Fine, who has an office on Centerville Road in Warwick, said that his business has not been deterred by the onslaught of retail tax preparation programs. Most CPAs, he said, use stronger programs than those sold in various retail outlets.
”If those programs have done anything, I haven’t noticed,” he said. “My business grows a little each year – and I don’t even push it.”
