Hopefully Fran has an accountant. The fee for such a professional who knows the ins-and-outs of the tax system is rapidly paid back when they find a good way to save you a few percent here or there.
That is only true if you are illiterate or totally uninterested in tax matters. Most of this stuff is pretty simple to deal with if you put your mind to it. Accountants love to boast about how much money they save but if they save a lot, it is likely shady and could possibly land you in trouble later on.
In my case, the advantages are:
- Massive amount of time saved
- Software and bank account automation for reconciliation and tax reports.
- Extra time to put in my taxes (Oct deadline if DIY, April the next year if through a certified accountant), so delyed cash flow advantage
- The appearance of legitimacy to the tax department, and they deal with all tax department enquries. This is more important than you think. You generally won't get anally probed if you go through an accountant with a good track record.
- They can spit out reports for various needs at a moments notice
- They have direct portal access to the tax department to change thing.
- And obviously they are on top of all the latest tax legislation and all the other expertise that they bringing doing this for countless people every day.
My yearly business tax report is like 100 pages long. I just check a few things and sign on the dotted line.
Worth every cent and then some.
They do my business return, our personal tax returns, and our self managed super fund. Easy and painless.
If you are a Pty Ltd company in Australia and you do your own taxes, you are insane.
I used to do my own when I was a sole trader and granted, it's not too hard at that scale.