I read that many CPAs already outsource a ton of their returns, then basically look it over and sign it, so you might be cutting out the middle man.
Last year, I hired a CPA to do my taxes. I was upfront that I was looking for a relationship, not just someone to type my numbers into TurboTax. I would have expected her to call me before the end of the year and tell me to tax loss harvest if I had the opportunity, remember to charitable give, catch up on my 401k, etc. Between last April and today, I received a Holiday card from her... She charged me $550 last year.
This year is far less complicated, and I will probably not use her services again. I had (possibly mistakenly) assumed that I would get someone looking out for my best interests. This was not the case.
So, being that much of the work gets oursourced to start with, and having all credit locks in place, etc, I might give it a shot this year. For $50, I will TurboTax myself, and send it to them. Then I will compare both of our forms after the fact and see how they stack up against each other.
It seems sorta egocentric to think that US-based CPAs could do any better job reading published tax codes. Though, it is a perfectly valid point that there is no US-based CPA to go into the IRS with me if something does happen. I'd assume I could always hire a tax-attorney after the fact, if something severe showed up (that I didn't notice before I filed)!
I might as well use economies of scale to my advantage!
I'll report back at how the service was, costs, etc afterwards. If anyone is interested, this is the wsj article:
Outsourcing Your Life - WSJ.com
and the tax firm the guy uses:
Outsource Bookkeeping to India, Outsource Tax Preparation to India, Outsource Accounting to India
Stay tuned...