It's tax season! Feeling overwhelmed? Do demands feel like they never stops and tasks just keep piling up? To-do lists are ongoing for most people and sometimes it seems like the list just keeps getting longer from week to week. Sometimes there simply just isn’t enough time to get everything done. Even if you do have time to check everything off your to-do list, it is often easier to hire someone else to complete certain tasks for you.
Outsourcing things is a good way to delegate certain parts of your life – especially things that you are not good at or are unfamiliar with. This will not only save you time but it can sometimes save you from big headaches later down the road. For example, if you have a nanny working with your family, you know how important it is to prepare end of year taxes accurately and in a timely manner. If you don’t, you could end up facing steep fines or other fees for errors that could have been avoided if you just outsourced the task in the first place.
A recent article in the New York Times discusses the idea of COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE, a 19th century concept developed by British economist David Ricardo. The article explains, “Countries and companies ought to outsource the production of lower-value goods and services, even if they can produce them more efficiently themselves. Even if you’re faster and more effective than everyone else at a given task — fighting with the cable company, say, or folding your socks just so — you still might be better off if you pay someone else to do it for you. Why? Because there is an opportunity cost for every hour consumed by these tedious, nonproductive tasks; there exists some higher-value activity you could be spending your time on instead.” (1) So, even if you’re good at something, you could still end up saving yourself unnecessary stress if you just hired someone to do it for you in the beginning. Outsourcing has some other amazing benefits – especially when it comes to preparing taxes for your household employee.
Benefit #1: Outsourcing saves time.
What activities will take some stress out of your day and improve the overall well-being of your family and your business? Freeing up time by outsourcing tax prep to a professional nanny service that has exclusive access to state and federal laws as well as household labor laws will likely save you dozens of hours when it’s all said and done. Outsourcing nanny tax services can help make the tax preparation process simple and seamless.
Benefit #2: Outsourcing will help minimize confusion.
Keeping detailed records while you have a nanny/in-home employee is vital. But, even if you have been incredibly organized and efficient in your recordkeeping, tax preparation is often very confusing and complicated. If you consult with a household payroll specialist, you’ll be able to minimize your own confusion and in the end, breeze through the tax season with no major hang-ups. Outsourcing nanny tax preparation means you won’t have to worry about reading up on all the wage and overtime laws or terms, or which deductions need to be made where. Your household payroll specialist knows the ins and outs of the process.
Benefit #3: Outsourcing can save you money.
These days outsourcing has become a most normal way for most CPAs to run their business and families to manage their time. There are several reasons why a CPA or family can benefit from outsourcing.
The CPA can get the work they need to do accomplish at a fraction of the price. The most common things that are outsourced are back-end jobs such as data entry/ processing, customer support, payroll processing, - and increasingly nanny tax preparation! The family that outsources the nanny payroll gains the peace of mind of knowing they have household payroll experts watching their back, and helping them stay compliant with the complex payroll and labor laws that are involved.
Outsourcing isn’t the answer for everyone, but as seen above, if you plan ahead and work directly with a household payroll tax specialist, you will be able to not only save time, but you’ll be able to work with a professional to problem solve if/when something goes wrong. Your time is worth saving and outsourcing is a great way to go!
