Tax Time Again



I can not believe it is that time of the year again - income tax time. For a change this year I finished early {insert jumping up and down}.

 

For years now I just file our own income tax returns. Two of my co-ops in post secondary were at an accounting office completing tax returns. When I finished my post secondary education I worked at an insolvency office and part of my job again was completing tax returns for insolvent individuals. I actually had a running total of all the returns I completed but have lost track now. It must be at plus 3000 returns. For every return I did at the insolvency office for an insolvent person I had to complete two returns which added up quickly, not to mention a lot of these individuals had not filed their taxes for years (part of the reason they were in the situation they were in). Let just say I completed a lot of income tax returns over the past 15 years.

I have a couple returns I do for people during tax time. I must admit it is nice having that little bit of extra money, especially now that I'm a SAHM. I never know how much to charge people though. Some of the people pay me what they would pay to have them done at a professional office (what they paid before I started completing their taxes - they always tell me whether they bring it to me or somewhere else they have to pay to get it done so they rather give me the money) and others ask for me to set a price. I must admit though I always have a hard time setting a price since I do not know what other places are charging and I do not want to over charge people. I figure the amount I charge covers a bit of my time, gets put towards the cost of the program, and my material - I print a copy of the return (which is usually close to 30 pages) and put it in a folder like so...

 

Yesterday I had the radio on and an ad for H&R Block came on and they said their basic returns start at $69.99 plus tax. (I thought it was so odd that I heard this ad ... the timing was just so weird since I had been discussing pricing on the weekend). After hearing the ad I must admit that I was curious to see what they considered a basic return. I decided to go visit their website to find out and let me tell you  I almost fell off my chair when I realized how much it costs to get tax returns done.       

I just had to document what I saw on their site at http://www.hrblock.ca/services/pricing.asp and I took a screen shot on April 7, 2013 ...

 

Most of the returns I do fall in their Intermediate Category which they charge $114.99 each return plus tax. I could not stop my price research here so I did a bit more searching. I figured the reason the price was so high was because it was H&R Block and other places probably charge way less.  I had a couple local newspapers laying around and quickly looked through them closely (I never look at the paper) to see if there were any ads listing income tax preparation and the price and I found a few. Most of them stated their prices for a basic return (one to two T4 slips) started between $55.00 - $60.00, and went up from there for any additional slips. They charge about $10 to $15 less than H&R Block (not really that much cheaper).

I could not believe how much money we save with me completing our income tax returns each year. I never really did the math before. This is why I decided to do this post. I hope it will be a reminder to us for years to come that every little bit we save by doing things our selves (if we have the know how) sure does add up and saves us quite a bit of money.

I think this year I might put some of the money towards a cartridge that I want to get for my die-cutting machine which will hopefully become an investment that allows me to make a bit more extra dough to put towards extra treats for the family (pizza night, ice-cream treats, etc.).

Just curious, do you do your own income tax or do you get them done professionally? If you do not mind me asking, how much are you charged?