All around the world governments are reminding people it's time to pony up! Infrastructure won't build itself! How many of you happen to prepare your own tax filing, and how many pay for a professional to do it for you? Back in the day I did it all by myself, with a free program called StudioTax. Any Canadian looking to do their own taxes I suggest using Studiotax, it's 100% free and very trustworthy. I always kicked in 5%-10% of my return to the good people at Studiotax for the hard work they do on the program. Now my situation is a little more complex, so I pay a professional $75 to prepare two returns. What is is like where you live? Do you have any tax advice for your fellow countrypeople?
People here have to do it themselves, but because I'm a freelancer, I've been told I don't have to do it as it's done automatically through the system. I've not quite done the full year in my current role, but I guess I'll have to start asking the right questions. I hate the idea because for a long time, the government did everything for you, and it only changed in recent years.
I prepare our taxes and have for years. I did try electronic filing once when it was first available but had a bad experience with my paperwork not getting filed as expected. The service was provided for free by the bank I was with at that time. I haven't been able to trust any one else to prepare our taxes and not really interested in filing online just yet.
Oh that's really interesting. My government also "does" your taxes. But they still force you to do your own and submit your own. Then they compare theirs and mine to see if I am trying to trick them. I know this because once I made an error and they caught it and "redid" my submission to match what they had. I don't know why they just don't do it and send me their copy for ME to cross check. I guess that would put a lot of accountants out of business.
I know, @Log In....it's such a pain in the you-know-what because I've seen my colleagues who work on a 'permanent and pensionable' basis running around like headless chickens sorting it all out, and it doesn't look like much fun LOL I guess they're still getting their heads around it as they never had to do it before. When I worked and lived in the UK, it was all done by the employer and the government. The only thing I ever did for myself was send some of my tax paperwork issued by the tax office over the year to ascertain that I hadn't been over/under charged i.e tax rebate. Twice I got a hefty refund
@BrandonScooterman I used to pay a professional accountant to complete my taxes, however I found that the price (around $200) was too costly. We started filing our own return with the help of computer software. With the great software programs that are available now, it makes it convenient for people to complete their own taxes.
In my country, people who derive their income exclusively from employment don't have to file an ITR. Their employer is responsible for ensuring that taxes are properly withheld and remitted to the government. The employer issues a Certificate to the employee as proof of income payment and withholding of taxes for the taxable year and this is released at the end of January of the succeeding year. If an employee has multiple employers within the year, the last employer has to consolidate the salary records and taxes withheld and apply the annual rate. It's the employer that pays the tax refund or deducts tax deficiency. Hence, taxation is so much simpler for employed people. On the other hand, if you're self-employed or have a business of your own, you have to do all the dirty work or hire a professional to do it for you. Business are required to submit/pay monthly VAT or percentage taxes, quarterly income tax, and annual income tax. They are also required to remit withholding taxes on salaries and payments to suppliers on a monthly basis. With a consolidated national tax system, a business can be easily flagged down for reporting mistakes or under-reporting of income/expense. The consequences can be costly so businesses have to make sure that their reports are consistent and accurate. It's quite possible to not hire an accountant to do the reports specially if your business has few transactions in a year or when its operations are simple like a rental business. There are also one-day courses for non-accountants. Fact is, as a business owner, it's always an advantage to learn about taxes because ultimately, you're responsible for it.
The best tax advice I can give it to get informed on what sort of expenses we need to have in order to have tax refund. If we are capable of collecting enough of those expenses, when we do taxes not only we are not paying, but we also receive, so making taxes ends up being a happy time.
