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Need Advice On 'Retiring' Our Tax Accountant. :-)
April 11, 2021
11:03 am
Dean
Valhalla Mountains, British Columbia
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Background . . .

    In past years my Wife and I hired an accountant to do our income taxes because of the complexities involved (two business, etc.). Now we're both retired and our income taxes are fairly simple now. But out of old habit, we still use an accountant ... costing us almost $300 each year.

Next year I'd like to pull-the-plug on using an accountant, and do our taxes ourselves using purchased (or free) income tax software.

Two questions . . .

    - Any recommendations on what income tax software to use ❓
    - How good is the software in determining the the most efficient pension income splitting, or do you have to somehow figure that out yourself ❓

.
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated, by both myself & others following.

Thanks,

    Dean

sf-cool " Live Long, Healthy ... And Prosper! " sf-cool

April 11, 2021
11:23 am
topgun
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Dean said
Background . . .

    In past years my Wife and I hired an accountant to do our income taxes because of the complexities involved (two business, etc.). Now we're both retired and our income taxes are fairly simple now. But out of old habit, we still use an accountant ... costing us almost $300 each year.

Next year I'd like to pull-the-plug on using an accountant, and do our taxes ourselves using purchased (or free) income tax software.

Two questions . . .

    - Any recommendations on what income tax software to use ❓
    - How good is the software in determining the the most efficient pension income splitting, or do you have to somehow figure that out yourself ❓

.
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated, by both myself & others following.

Thanks,

    Dean

  

I have used the Cantax/Quicktax/Turbotax programs over the years. I did my parents until they each passed. Turbotax was very easy to do their taxes. They had items that I was not familiar with as well. Splitting pensions etc. Turbotax worked wonders. I use the downloadable paid standard version.

Have a Great Day

April 11, 2021
1:50 pm
julio
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Since 2004, I use the same program as topgun in post2, TurboTax, however I buy a physical CD to stick into the computer drive. For personal and for sole-proprietorship. The program transfers all relevant info from year to year, like CCA etc. Probably other tax programs can do the same. You can install it on more computers (maybe 4), for example on yours and on your friend's (it works). Max. number of returns included in the original cost is 8 plus on top of that 12 with under (I believe the cut off is) 25K income. Some things it could not do four years ago, despite their support taking over my screen (with my permission) and trying to do it by themselves. Probability for you needing that functionality is miniscule, I guess (disability transfer - which I did manually and sent an explanation to CRA) . One feature which I miss is that income from T5 cannot be automatically split between and more importantly among non-spouses. I expect an enquiry from CRA some day on that on the returns I filed, which is easily defendable, but needs attention - at least it serves the practice of essay writing.

April 11, 2021
3:29 pm
LK
British Columbia, Canada
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I have used Intuit TurboTax for years, and love it.

April 11, 2021
5:04 pm
Oscar
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Why not practice with free software for this year and see if the results are similar to the $300 version. You could use the accountant copy as a guide and so next year you may feel somewhat confident that you're doing it right.

April 11, 2021
5:18 pm
toto
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Ive used simple tax over the years which is now wealthsimple.
They have an easy format to follow. You pay by donation if you want to.

April 12, 2021
6:35 am
Alexandre
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I've been using TurboTax Standard paid version for years, to file taxes for my household and other relatives.

It does offer to optimize income splitting, among many other things.

I think I might have been OK with TurboTax Basic now that pandemics simplified my taxes a lot, but out of habit I keep buying a bit more expensive Standard for about $35, which is more feature rich.
I usually get it from Staples, they offer it online and in store. I prefer version that comes with CD, because browsers become stricter and stricter with downloads, which means downloadable install might not work.

In all my years of complex and of simple taxes, with and without dependents, medical expenses, other multiple types of expenses including business expenses, I have found that TurboTax does handle them all.

Also, TurboTax, like many other tax preparation software packages (but not all of them) can download T4/T5 and other forms from CRA My Account, thus simplifying tax filing.
TurboTax also can Netfile taxes, making tax return submission very easy. They seriously improved that part over last few years, making electronic tax return submission seamless.

Finally, paid TurboTax version installed on computer will import your information from previous year tax report prepared by TurboTax. Which means, you file your basic information once (name, address, SIN, etc., etc.) and next year when you file taxes again with TurboTax you won't have to repeat entering it. It'll even remember your max allowed RRSP contribution.

The only thing I don't like about TurboTax is when you file taxes there will be 2-3 steps where they will offer upgrade or professional review or other similar service, for an extra fee. I would recommend not to pay extra, software is already good as it is.

If you decided on TurboTax, I would suggest going with Standard (not Basic), also if your computer has CD drive for sure get one that comes with CD. You'll see it written on a box and it is same price as their "Download Version Only" product.

TurboTax-Standard-with-CD.jpg

April 12, 2021
7:54 am
AltaRed
BC Interior
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Almost any of the tax software programs will do the trick. People will promote/suggest the ones they are familiar with. I have used the downloaded (not online version) of UFile for a decade or so (since at least 2010) and before that the downloaded (or CD) version of TurboTax for perhaps a decade. Both do the optimizations but I believe so does SimpleTax and StudioTax. I use StudioTax for optimizations because one does not have to pay for it until they are ready to print. I do not like SimpleTax because it is online with one's tax file residing on some server.

April 13, 2021
7:01 pm
Dean
Valhalla Mountains, British Columbia
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Oscar said

Why not practice with free software for this year and see if the results are similar to the $300 version. You could use the accountant copy as a guide and so next year you may feel somewhat confident that you're doing it right.  

An 'Excellent' Idea

For practice, I'll 'redo' this year's taxes with the free version of TurboTax. Assuming all goes well, I'll probably use TurboTax 'Standard' for next year.

Thanks Folks ... for All your help, advice, and suggestions posted above.

Much Appreciated

        Dean

sf-cool " Live Long, Healthy ... And Prosper! " sf-cool

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