THE USAGE AND BENEFITS OF PAID TAX RETURN PREPARATION

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
By analyzing a national sample of federal individual income tax returns, we are able to identify important determinants of whether a taxpayer uses an accountant or other professional tax return préparer. Our results confirm previous findings that upper-income taxpayers, the elderly, and selfemployed workers are more likely to use a paid preparer than other taxpayers. We also find that professional tax assistance is directly related to the complexity of the tax return and the marginal tax rate on income. Income tax liability is relatively lower on paid-preparer than self-prepared returns with the same income, filing status, and other characteristics, suggesting that professional tax assistance saves taxpayers money as well as time.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: