sgbolt

Is it beneficial to file taxes with an accountant rather than turbo tax if I have rental income from the uk? I usually do it myself on turbo tax buy my tax bill has more than doubled despite my overall income going down and I wonder if I'm missing something. My rental income is quite simple in terms of my profits minus the expenses. Thanks I'm confused and feeling poor now with a huge tax bill.

Twitcher1958

Did you use the correct exchange rate? And the right way round? We find Turbotax good in that you can play around with the figures and see the effect on the outcome, and this can highlight where you've made a mistake.

Siouxie

Use a 2nd program (such as Studiotax or one of the other free ones authorised by Revenue Canada Certified software for the 2016 NETFILE program) to check your figures and inputs. Make sure you are putting the rental income in the right section on the return.

Snowy560

We've used HR Block with mixed feelings for a few years, but are using an accountant this year as we have a lot going on including UK income, several job contracts and a CGT liability. Next year, I am aiming to do it myself. I find the whole thing a complete nightmare and I hate it. I don't actually earn very much but it's very "bit-ey". If it makes your life easier, use an accountant. If you have only a couple of sources of income, I would probably just do as others are suggesting.

S

sgbolt

Thanks for advice. I think I might try filling it out again on a different program see what happens. It appears the figures I imputted are correct but the result ie the tax bill owed more than doubled this year

Siouxie

I can personally recommend Studiotax - it's free

gryphea

We use Turbo Tax Premier. Its fairly simple. I have a spreadsheet I use every year which calculates it overall, but then slot these figures into TurboTax. Note that turbotax can be slightly confusing in terms of the rental personal allowance box. This should be zero%. Otherwise it attributes some of the costs to you and not the house. There is only a percentage in there if you are living there as well. Of course this years exchange rate means more tax.


its easy to check the personal allowance box thinking that you own all the house so it goes to you, but that is wrong. It should be 0. This will significantly affect your tax.


Note, you should have an idea what is owed on your house and check this using the forms and detailed summary views

sgbolt

Thanks for that. Yep I believe I didn't pit a % in on the personal allowance as I guessed I couldn't claim any. And yes conversion rate hasn't helped !!