Personal Finance Daily: Do you need to hire a tax pro? ? Clearing ...

By MarketWatch

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Are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you hire a professional preparer for your taxes? There are many potential pitfalls lurking in the increasingly complex tax code ? mistakes that a pro is likely to avoid.

As Eva Rosenberg describes in TaxWatch, a tax adviser also can help long after tax season is over to make sure you don?t make decisions that?ll end up being costly when the tax bill comes due. Read her story for some startling real-life examples of mistakes taxpayers have made.

Plus, read about the prospects for $5-a-gallon gas this summer, and find out how to be a smart investor in a stock market that?s dominated by one tech company.

I still do my taxes myself using online tax-preparation software. Basically, I?m just stubborn about doing some things myself.

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Andrea Coombes
, Personal Finance editor

The pros and cons of hiring a tax pro

This year, the online-filing buzz is about free or nearly free advice. All the major tax-processing firms are offering discussion forums, free calls or tax advice for under $25. Essentially, we don?t need no stinkin? tax professional. Or do we?

Read more: The pros and cons of hiring a tax pro.

Experts talk down $5 gasoline this summer

One trader says war with Iran could spark prices at the pump, but the market?s also concerned with questions of supply, demand and seasonality.

Read more: Experts talk down $5 gasoline this summer.

Source: http://www.clearingandsettlement.com/2012/02/personal-finance-daily-do-you-need-to-hire-a-tax-pro/

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