5 Benefits of Having a Tax Professional Review Your Return

10 Jun 5 Benefits of Having a Tax Professional Review Your Return

So you filed your return a few months ago, and you probably haven’t given it much thought since then. But did you know that having your tax return reviewed by a professional CPA can offer you several benefits? Whether you filed your return yourself or used a tax preparer who wasn’t a CPA, there are many ways that a tax return review can help you.

Get Audit Representation

If you used a tax preparer to file your last return, you might think you’re covered in the event of an audit. However, that’s not necessarily true. Many individuals who are qualified to file a return are not qualified to offer you audit representation. However, if you work with one of our certified public accountants in Provo to review and amend a return, we can offer you that representation if you are audited by the IRS.

Make Sure You Got Every Deduction

It’s impossible for the average taxpayer to keep track of all of the credits and deductions available, so the odds are relatively high that you might have missed a few when filing your return—especially considering that 2018 was the first year that much of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was applied to your taxes. Having one of our professional CPAs look at your return can help to ensure you got every credit and deduction you qualified for last year. And, if any were missed, we can file an amendment to get you an additional refund.

Correct Possible Errors

While it’s always nice to find out you’re getting more money back from the IRS, sometimes a tax return review results in exactly the opposite. Our CPAs might notice that something was reported incorrectly on your filed return, and you actually owe more to the IRS. While this is never a pleasant thing to hear, it is still a benefit to you.

If those incorrectly reported numbers are caught by the IRS later on, you may end up with additional fees and penalties, and could even be chosen for an audit as a result. While it might not be great to hear that you need to send another check to the IRS, it is much more pleasant than hearing it from the IRS themselves later on.

Learn More about Your Taxes

For many taxpayers, filing their tax return is a lot of guesswork, crossing fingers, and blindly hoping that they’re doing it right. If you’ve never worked with a professional CPA before, having your return reviewed now can help you to actually gain knowledge about your tax situation. You’ll learn what deductions and credits you actually qualify for, and see where you made mistakes on your return. Then, if you choose to self-file next year, you’ll be able to handle the task with more confidence.

Review Several Returns

Last year’s tax return isn’t the only one that qualifies for a review and amendment. Generally, you can amend returns for the past three tax years. (Some specifications do apply to this, so be sure to talk to us about it if you want to amend any older returns.) So, if you’ve been using a tax preparer who’s not a CPA, or you’ve been self-filing for several years, it may be worth bringing in multiple returns to have them all reviewed and amended.

This will help to ensure that you received all qualifying deductions and credits for those years, and that all your income and expenses have been properly reported on your old returns.

The knowledge, education, and experience that a professional CPA offers simply can’t be matched by other tax preparers or self-filing programs. So, if you’ve been filing with anyone other than our certified public accountants in Provo, contact us about having your previously filed returns reviewed. You’ll be surprised by just how many errors we can find on your old returns.