Accountant or Computer?

By: Ashley Gray
Posted In: News

Dan Titus has one of the busiest jobs on campus. He is in charge of all of the audio and visual set-ups on campus, as well as the computers in all of the classrooms. With the constant commotion that goes down in the University Computer Las, which is located in the basement of the Salve Regina University library, Titus, assistant director of the University Computer Labs, also has what other people have on their minds this time of year. Taxes are due.

Like many other people in America, Titus does his taxes with the help of a CD-ROM. In particular, he uses Turbo Tax, which according to About.com, is one of the five most popular tax software available. Titus said he has been using the program for three years and even uses it when he does other people’s taxes.

He started using Turbo Tax primarily because he felt that the tax codes and law were too confusing and he wanted something easy and quick to get his taxes done. The Federal version of the software was already installed on the work computer, so he decided to use that on his Federal Income Taxes. For his state taxes, he purchased the state version, which he said was around $29.99.

“The first time I filed my taxes I did them myself”, said Titus, who has studied accounting at the university. “I would recommend to using a tax software over doing it yourself if you are filing for he first time.”

With all the hype about tax software, more people are wondering if it is better to invest in the software or just have their taxes done by an accountant. According to LifeHacker.com, over 75 percent of the people polled say that they use some sort of tax software, either online or they purchased the software themselves. Almost 15 percent of the people say they actually use an accountant to prepare their taxes.

“My girlfriend uses an accountant to do her taxes, because hers are more complex than mine,” said Titus. “She has investments and all sorts of stuff, so instead of doing it herself, she pays the $250 or whatever accountants charge, and have them worry about it all. All she has to do is answer their questions.”

Michael Grandchamp, assistant vice president for finance at the university, is also a fan and user of Turbo Tax to do his personal taxes. “What I recommend to people, in terms of whether to use Turbo Tax or to use a preparer is the level of complexity of your tax return. ”

He said that his return is not so complex, so he has used Turbo Tax for his own taxes for the past seven or eight years. He recommends for small business owners use a tax preparer. “Tax prepares not only have good advice for you, but they’re able to set up certain things for tax planning purposes,” Grandchamp said. When it comes to a home owner, Grandchamp said that using Turbo Tax is better because they have small itemized deductions that can be calculated with answering the questions on the software.

When it comes to doing Salve Regina’s taxes, Grandchamp said that is something the university would need a preparer for. Grandchamp has had experience himself doing the University’s taxes, since he has prepared them for the past 21 years. Since the university is required to file online now, they use software similar to Turbo Tax on a non profit website.

Grandchamp thinks that the most common mistake with first time filers would be planning and timing , and what they have had withheld, or knowing if they had anything withheld at all.

With April 15 approaching soon, people are starting to get organized with what they need for their taxes to get filed. Michelle Freitas, an audit supervisor at Sansiveri, Kimball & McNamee in Newport, says the firm is just as busy as they were last year at this time.

“We have the same number every year,” Freitas said. “It’s almost scary, like it’s the same people every year.” Freitas as been a CPA (certified public accountant) for 12 years. She said that the reason she became an accountant is because in high school accounting came easy to her.

Freitas says that the advantages of having a CPA do people’s taxes is the support they get from the accountant, for example, being able to ask questions if you do not understand something. Another thing is if you inpute something wrong in the software, then your return will end up wrong.

“If you have complex situations, it’s not as easy as just putting something in and getting the right answer,” says Freitas. “There must be research that needs to be done that someone isn’t going to know how to do.”

Freitas said that if you have a simple W-2, then you can use the software for that, since that is what it is made for. Freitas said that the best software to use is Turbo Tax and H & R Block TaxCut, which she has used herself.

Freitas said that one of the biggest mistakes that fist time filers do is claiming the wrong deductions and charitable contributions with all the changing laws, you may know you are doing it , but not sure how to go about it. If you have a business, the deductions and forms become more complex, so it is better to have someone prepare them for you in that case.

In the end, whether or not you use tax software or an accountant depends on preference and complexity. The more complicated your return becomes, the better off you probably will be by having an accountant do them for you, then plugging in numbers into a software.