Per website:
- Preparation & Lodgement of Full Individual Tax Return (without restrictions)
- Individual Tax Return includes Sole Trader and Individuals with Austudy, shares investment, dividends, directors fees, negative geared investment properties
- Prepared by highly experienced, CPA qualified accountants specialising in providing the most personalised service for every individual
- Includes Tax & Financial Planning Advice
- Maximise your Tax Refund!
It's paying for a service like getting someone to mow the lawn, clean your house, or iron your clothes. Yes you can do it yourself but maybe some people don't know how, can't be bothered or just don't want to.
JV starts again :) This is pretty cheap for people who have complex tax returns like investment properties and all.
It wont do the bookkeeping for people with "complex tax returns like investment properties"…
That's were all the work is done for preparing your tax returns…
People with investment properties will nearly ALWAYS have an accountant, and they would do the tax as part of the service…
Tax accountants don't do your bookkeeping jv, that's your job…they do your returns, BAS, ATO liaison etc.
However, if you're a larger organisation then you might have a company accountant; that could be where you're getting confused; but most individuals, small businesses and sole traders keep their own records.
"normal" price from places such as H&R Block is about $120.
Saying it's not a bargain because YOU can do it online for free is like me saying any of those dvd or blueray deals aren't bargains cause I can get any of them for free on torrent sites.
Exactly, plus just walking into many tax agents with more than one group certificate will often cost an additional premium too!
I used to submit it my self, then 2 years ago I decided to try a agent out
my return went from $400 to $2200.
Makes me think how much money i have lost over the last 13 years of my work life.
Although i still dont think this is a bargain but im not going to neg it.
seriously, what having you been missing?
cause i was hoping for the same but no luck.
dont have any investments, just a regular office workers.
hardly get any tax back.
@juln: Did your accountant tell you they can do an amendment for at least the last two years of that?
Might be worth asking about! :)
which tax agent did you go? Can you give me their details? They seems pretty good
Choosing a tax agent based on price is like choosing a brain surgeon based on the same thing - you are better off paying good money for a good one
Note: I have no idea how good these guys are.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/48290
Same boat of negger will land here soon.
Compare to the normal price this is consider quite reasonable if you use this service. You cannot compare this with "fill you own" e-Tax online. It's like valet parking where you pay (directly or indirectly) or park it yourself for free.
I'm a student, I do part time work and recently did my paid work experience. Would I benefit from this? Or I should do it myself?
in my humble opinion, it would depend on how complex your tax is and how comfortable you are. If the only income you received was from employment, You could probably do it easily yourself via etax (see JV's ato link above). Do a lot of reading and understand what you can/can't claim - this is what an accountant is good for .. they will (should) look for everything you can claim to give you the best tax outcome.
If you have multiple investment properties, shares, capital gain, depreciation etc etc etc… then you might look at getting an accountant (if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself and dont know what you can/cant claim) .
As an accountant running a good sized practice, I would make 2 points:
1 - This is insanely cheap. The ITP and H&R Blocks of this world start at around $80 with minimally trained staff and charge the more they do. My ITR's start at $160 without a rental schedule and you are looking at $220 with a rental property. I cannot even begin to wonder how doing it at this price makes it worth their while (not making any insinuations on the quality of the work).
2 - Don't make anassumption that a cheap fee or big refund, is a good basis to choose an accountant. Ultimately you take responsibility for the return no matter who prepares it. I've seen new clients with large refunds where I've pointed out after a couple of minutes very obvious mistakes, where they have been prepared by cheap accountants or by friends and family. Inevitably it gets picked up by the ATO and penalties and interest is applied.
That's the normal price isn't it.
I've been there. x_X!