Online Tax Return Preparation - What You Need to Ask Before Deploying the System    by Amitaabh Saboo

in Finance / Accounting    (submitted 2010-03-04)

Filing income tax returns could be a daunting task for a business owner. Sometimes accountants and accounting clerks need to render overtime just to make sure that the preparation for the said documents and files are organized and done efficiently. For some, because of the large workload would need to temporarily hire someone who could work with the accountants. This would entail a considerable amount of money in overhead and staff costs.

Fortunately, there is a growing trend to utilize online tax return preparation these days. With the use of it, you can now just sit and work on your computer right in the comforts of your home. You will be amazed, that everything can be finished in as short as one hour, depending on the bulk of your data. Say goodbye now to the old fashion technique of tax preparation. If you can make everything easy and quick, then why not. It does not only save you efforts, it can save you time and money as well. But for some, this could be something that they would be skeptic about. The concerns would be about confidentiality and privacy of documents.
Also, if a business belongs to small to medium enterprise, additional cost must be considered to set up an online system that makes tax return preparation easy. Plus, it would mean employing the latest software. Another possible worry is untested and unproven tax preparation methods that may jeopardize the whole system at the end. That instead of trying to conform to the tax law and trying to be as diligent in tax preparation as possible, online tax return preparation may be detrimental to the business as a whole. More worries would come for those who are not yet well versed or at least open to the idea about these modern tax return preparation systems.
But if you are sure of the company offering online tax return preparation, there is indeed nothing to worry about. The first step therefore that needs to be looked into with the use of this kind of tax return preparation is to know how the system works. You just have to know the methods that are employed by companies offering so that your skepticism or worries will be eliminated.
So before you open yourself to the idea of online tax return preparation, here are the things that you should check with companies offering you such services and get rid of your worries:
- How cost effective will it be if my business utilizes the service through outsourcing companies? In this question, you can ask for quotations for the cost of the service and compare it with your current overhead and staff costs in working with tax returns.
- Will the data that I give to outsourced companies be treated with utmost confidentiality? How will I know that they treat my data with such diligence? What are their policies with regards to this and how would I be assured that such policy is implemented?
- What are the methods they employ? Will their system hamper my business operation? Are the methods that they employ easy to understand and one that I'm familiar about?
- Are the companies who offer online services, well versed with the latest accounting systems and processes?
- Are the systems that they employ for outsourcing services reliable and secure?
When all of these questions are answered favorably by the outsourcing companies who offer the services on online tax return preparation, you can be assured that your shift from manual preparation to online methods will work for your own business benefit.