Paying an accountant is worth it when your situation is anything more than simple. If you have investments, rental income, a business, capital gains, or deductions you are not sure about, an accountant usually saves you more than the fee, through claims you would have missed, time you get back, and mistakes you avoid. If your return is just salary and wages with no real deductions, myTax is free, takes minutes, and an accountant adds little. Either way, the fee is tax deductible the following year, so the real cost is lower than the price on the invoice.
When paying an accountant is worth it
It usually pays for itself if any of these are true:
you have a rental property, shares, or crypto with capital gains to work out
you are a sole trader or run a business
you have income from more than one source, or income that changed during the year
you are unsure which deductions you can claim for your job
your circumstances changed, such as selling a property, moving for work, or starting a side business
you would rather hand it over and know it is right than spend a weekend on it
When you can probably do it yourself
Doing it yourself on myTax is fine when:
you earn salary or wages from one employer
your deductions are small and straightforward
most of your details are already pre-filled
you are comfortable reading the questions and confident your answers are correct
In that case myTax costs nothing and usually takes under an hour, and an accountant would not change your refund much.
What are you actually paying for?
The fee buys more than data entry. You are paying for the deductions you would have missed, because a good accountant knows what your occupation can claim and often finds more than they cost. You are paying for time, handing over your documents and receiving a finished return instead of losing a weekend to it. You are paying for accuracy and a bit of protection, since fewer errors go in, and if the ATO ever asks questions, someone who prepared the return can stand behind it.
There are two quieter benefits too. Lodging through a registered tax agent usually gives you a later deadline, often into the following May rather than 31 October, as long as you are on their books beforehand. And a good accountant looks forward, not just back, pointing out ways to be better off next year. If you want the difference between an accountant and a registered tax agent, our note on tax agents and accountants explains it.
Does an accountant guarantee a bigger refund?
No, and be wary of anyone who promises one. A registered tax agent cannot invent deductions or guarantee a number, because your refund depends on your income, the tax you paid during the year, and what you are genuinely entitled to claim. What a good accountant does is make sure you claim everything you are legally allowed to, and nothing you are not. That often means a better result than a rushed return you did yourself, but not always a bigger refund.
Sometimes the honest outcome is that you owe money, and the value is in getting that right so it does not come back to bite you later. Anyone guaranteeing a large refund before they have even seen your details is a warning sign, not a selling point.
How to get the most from paying an accountant
You can lower the fee and improve the result by turning up prepared. Bring your income statements, your receipts, and any records for investments or a business, sorted rather than loose, because the less time your accountant spends untangling paperwork, the less you pay. Tell them about anything that changed during the year, such as a new job, a property sale, or a side business, since those are exactly the things that shape your return.
It also helps to ask one forward-looking question while you are there, about how to be better off next year, because that advice is often worth more than the return itself. Our list of questions to ask your accountant is a good place to start.
A simple way to decide
Here is a quick test. If your return is only salary and a couple of small deductions, do it yourself and keep the fee. If any part of it makes you pause, a form you have not seen, an investment, a business, or a big change during the year, an accountant is almost always worth it. And since the fee is deductible and, as we cover in what an accountant costs for a tax return, often modest for a simple return, the decision is rarely as expensive as it first looks.
