subject: How Accountants Have Evolved In Today's Society [print this page] Are accountants obsolete with all the high-end software capable of doing their jobs? Ironically, the evolving role of accountants is helping people save on their taxes.
Given the fact that paying taxes isn't the most popular of tasks, most people don't give much thought to the role of accountants. It's just like going to the dentist for your periodical checkup. It's something unpleasant that nonetheless needs to be accomplished. Still, most people would rather have toothaches than go through an audit. To use a strange analogy, many people would rather be insulted by Simon Cowell for bad singing - and get a teeth pulled out while at it - rather than sit through an audit.
Accountants are usually the ones who help us sort through the tax returns - and this has been their role in our life for years. Now, many people feel they don't need an accountant when they have tax preparation software. And many accountants wonder the same thing as well.
Accountants are now playing new roles in our lives thanks to the improvements made on popular tax preparation software programs. Ironically, this is good for both taxpayers and accountants. No longer does an accountant count on spending time filing out tax returns. That's because even accountants use tax prep software to get the job done!
The role of accountants is now to do tax planning for their clients. The best accountant is one that drags you into his or her office once a year to look at your finances and plan a strategy to limit what you will pay the IRS. This should occur at some point during the beginning of the tax year, not a week before your tax returns are due!
Many accountants were caught unaware by the whirlwind of changes caused by improved technology on tax software, maybe due to the fact that they have all these papers to prepare. This is actually a blessing in disguise, as accountants now can focus on their original purpose, which is to help you come up with ways to cut down on your taxes. This is more interesting for them and obviously beneficial for you.
It was once thought that accountants would go the way of the dinosaur with advanced tax software. But this has actually helped them become true accountants, serving their original purposes of offering tax advice.
