Accountant vs Tax Software | When Paying a Professional Is Actually Cheaper

On this page

• The Honest Answer: Most Canadians Do Not Need an Accountant
• Where Software Genuinely Wins
• What Each Option Costs in 2026
• The 8 Situations Where Software Costs You More Than It Saves
• The Cost Nobody Calculates: What a Missed Deduction Is Worth
• The Middle Option: DIY Filing With a Professional Review
• How to Decide in 60 Seconds
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Not Sure Which Camp You Are In?

The Honest Answer: Most Canadians Do Not Need an Accountant

If your tax situation is all of the following, use software and keep your money:

• Employment income on T4 slips
• Investment slips from a Canadian institution, T3 and T5, that import automatically
• RRSP contributions, tuition, medical expenses and donations
• No business, no rental, no foreign property, no property sale
• No CRA correspondence you do not understand

For that profile the software is doing arithmetic and applying credits, and it does both perfectly well. CRA’s Auto fill my return pulls most of your slips in automatically, which removes the main source of DIY errors: forgetting a slip.

Our tax services are available in Coquitlam and other regions across British Columbia.  

 

Where Software Genuinely Wins

Strength	Why it matters
Cost	Free to about $80 for most personal situations
Speed	A straightforward return takes 30 to 60 minutes
Auto fill my return	Pulls your slips directly from CRA, so nothing gets forgotten
Repeatability	Next year it carries forward your details, RRSP room and unused credits
Immediate filing	NETFILE submission and a refund in around two weeks
Control	You see every number and learn how your own taxes work

That last point is underrated. People who have done their own return a few times make better financial decisions the rest of the year because they actually understand their marginal rate.

 

What Each Option Costs in 2026

Prices move every season, so treat these as typical ranges rather than quotes.

Option	Typical cost	Best for
Wealthsimple Tax	Free, with optional paid tiers around $40 to $80	Simple to moderately complex personal returns
TurboTax Free	$0	Single T4, basic credits
TurboTax Standard or Premier	Roughly $25 to $60 per return	Investments, multiple slips, medical and donations
TurboTax Self Employed	Roughly $60 to $80	Sole proprietors with straightforward books
Assist and review style products	Roughly $70 to $200	You want a set of eyes on it without full service
Accountant, simple personal return	Roughly $150 to $300	You want it done and checked
Accountant, return with rental or self employment	Roughly $300 to $700	Real decisions to make
Accountant, complex personal return	$700 and up	Multiple properties, foreign assets, departures and arrivals
Accountant, corporate T2 with financial statements	Roughly $1,500 to $4,000	Any incorporated business

The interesting band is the middle. A $500 fee only needs to find $1,700 of missed deductions at a 30% marginal rate to pay for itself, and in the situations below it usually finds considerably more than that.

The 8 Situations Where Software Costs You More Than It Saves

You Have Rental Income

Rental returns are full of judgment calls that software presents as simple yes or no boxes. Repair versus capital improvement. Whether to claim capital cost allowance, which reduces tax now and creates recapture on sale later. How much of your vehicle and home office is genuinely attributable. Whether a property that was your home before you rented it triggered a change in use.

You Are Self Employed With Real Expenses

Software will fill in the T2125 for you. What it will not do is tell you that your meals are only 50% deductible, that your home office claim cannot create a loss, that your vehicle log matters more than your receipts, or that you should be considering incorporation at your income level.

You Own a Corporation

This is not a close call. Corporate returns involve financial statement preparation, GIFI coding, capital dividend accounts, shareholder loan balances, salary versus dividend planning and integration between your corporate and personal returns. Consumer software does not do T2 returns properly and the ones that claim to are not solving the parts that matter.

You Sold a Property or Investments

Adjusted cost base calculations, the principal residence exemption and its designation form, changes in use, and capital gains reserves are all easy to get wrong and expensive to correct. A missed principal residence designation is one of the most costly common errors in Canadian personal tax.

You Have Foreign Income or Property

Foreign tax credits, T1135 reporting, foreign pensions and treaty positions. Software prompts for some of this and misses the rest, and T1135 penalties start at $100 and run to $2,500 a year before you count the extended reassessment period.

You Moved To or From Canada This Year

Part year residency, deemed acquisition and departure tax, prorated credits, and which income belongs in the Canadian return at all. This is the single most commonly botched DIY situation and the errors compound across future years.

You Are Facing a CRA Review or Reassessment

Once CRA writes to you, the question is no longer data entry, it is what to send, what to say and what not to volunteer. A response drafted well can close a review in one letter. A response drafted badly invites a broader look.

You Have Not Filed in Years

Multiple years, missing slips, possible penalties and interest, and often a need for taxpayer relief or a voluntary disclosure. The sequencing of these filings genuinely matters and getting it wrong forfeits relief you were entitled to.

The Cost Nobody Calculates: What a Missed Deduction Is Worth

A deduction is worth its amount multiplied by your marginal rate. In BC, a middle income earner sits around 28% to 31% combined, and higher earners run well past 40%. So every $1,000 of missed deductions is $280 to $400 of real tax, every year it stays missed.

Worked Example: A BC Rental Owner Filing Two Ways

Priya owns a rental condo in Burnaby. Gross rent $30,000.

Line	DIY with software	With an accountant
Mortgage interest	$14,000	$14,000
Strata fees	$4,200	$4,200
Property tax and insurance	$3,100	$3,100
Repairs claimed	$1,800	$1,800
Bathroom work, split correctly between repair and capital	Claimed as $0, treated as capital in full	$2,600 deductible portion identified
Vehicle and home office for property management	$0, not prompted	$1,100
Accounting and legal fees for the rental	$0, forgotten	$400
Total expenses	$23,100	$27,200
Net rental income	$6,900	$2,800
Tax at a 31% marginal rate	$2,139	$868

 

The difference is $1,271 of tax on a fee of around $500. And the accountant also advised against claiming capital cost allowance, which would have reduced tax by a few hundred dollars this year while creating a recapture bill running into thousands when Priya eventually sells.

That second point is the one software structurally cannot handle. It optimises this year’s return. It has no view on the year you sell.

The Middle Option: DIY Filing With a Professional Review

There is a sensible position between the two extremes that not enough people use. Prepare the return yourself, then pay for a professional review before you file.

It works well when:

• Your situation changed this year and you want to check you handled it correctly
• You are comfortable with the data entry but not with the judgment calls
• You want to learn, and having someone explain what you missed is worth the fee

It works badly when your situation is genuinely complex, because reviewing a return that was built on a wrong premise takes longer than preparing it correctly from the start.

How to Decide in 60 Seconds

Answer yes or no. Any single yes means you should at least get a quote.

• Do you own a business, a corporation or a rental property?
• Did you buy, sell or change the use of a property this year?
• Do you have foreign property, foreign income or a foreign pension?
• Did you move to or from Canada, or change provinces?
• Has CRA written to you about anything you do not fully understand?
• Are you behind on filing?
• Did you have a large one off event, a severance, an inheritance, a settlement, a large capital gain?
• Are you making salary versus dividend decisions?

All no? Open Wealthsimple Tax or TurboTax Free tonight and be done in an hour. That is a genuinely good outcome and you should not feel any guilt about it.

If you answered yes to one or more, the honest reason to talk to someone is not that the form is too hard. It is that your return now contains choices with consequences in future years, and software will not flag a single one of them. Our team at MaxPro Financials does personal and corporate returns for BC clients, and we are equally happy to tell you that your situation genuinely does not need us. If you want a second opinion on a return you have already prepared, or a straight answer on whether incorporation makes sense at your income level, that is a short conversation and usually a useful one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Wealthsimple Tax safe and CRA certified?

Yes. It is NETFILE certified, which means CRA has tested it against their systems. Certification confirms the software transmits correctly, not that your return is right, and that distinction is the whole point of this article.

Can I switch to an accountant mid year?

Yes, and there is nothing awkward about it. Bring your last two years of assessed returns and your carryforward amounts, RRSP room, capital losses, tuition credits and undepreciated capital cost balances. Any accountant will ask for exactly those.

Can an accountant fix a return I already filed?

Yes. Returns can be adjusted for up to ten prior years through a T1 adjustment request. If you have been missing the same deduction for several years, that is often the first thing worth checking, and the refunds can be substantial.

Will an accountant find enough to pay for themselves?

On a single T4 return, almost certainly not, and you should not pay for one. On a rental, a business, a property sale or a year with foreign elements, usually yes, and the value is often in the future years’ tax you avoid rather than this year’s refund.

Does using an accountant reduce my chance of being audited?

Not directly. CRA selects based on risk indicators, not on who prepared the return. What it does change is how quickly and cheaply a review resolves, because the supporting documentation and reasoning already exist.

Can I use software for my personal return and an accountant for my corporation?

You can, but the two returns interact. Salary and dividends, shareholder loans, home office and vehicle claims all cross between them. Having the same person see both usually produces a better result than splitting them.

How much should a simple return actually cost?

In BC, roughly $150 to $300 for a straightforward personal return with a professional. If you are being quoted considerably more than that for a single T4 and some receipts, ask what is driving it.

What records do I need either way?

The same ones. All slips, receipts for anything you claim, a vehicle log if you claim vehicle expenses, records of property purchases and sales including legal statements, and prior year notices of assessment. CRA can ask for all of it for six years.

Is tax preparation tax deductible?

For a business or rental, yes, the portion relating to the business or rental is deductible. For a straightforward personal return with employment income only, generally no.

What if I file myself and then realise I made a mistake?

Do not file a second return. Request an adjustment through My Account or a T1 adjustment form. Fixing it yourself is always better than waiting for CRA to find it, because voluntary corrections are treated far more favourably.

Not Sure Which Camp You Are In?

If you read the eight situations above and recognised yourself in one or two, the useful next step is not to search harder. It is to spend twenty minutes with someone who can look at your actual circumstances and tell you whether this is a software year or a professional year.

MaxPro Financials prepares personal and corporate returns for clients across BC, handles rental and self employment income, property sales, newcomer and departure situations, and CRA reviews. We will also tell you honestly when your return is simple enough that you should keep filing it yourself. Book a consultation and find out which one you are.