Time for a Tax Pro?

Doing your own taxes was once aviable alternative to hiring a professionalto do them. Some tax experts believe thattime may be gone, especially with thecomplex new rules on reporting dividendincome. What sounds simple in theory—dividend income is now taxed as capitalgains rather than as ordinary income—isquite complex in reality. Even tax prosaren't looking forward to wrestling withSchedule D (ie, the form you use toreport capital gains) come next April.Schedule D, which was already considered1 of the most difficult forms towork on when it hit 40 lines last year,will have 55 lines this time around, inaddition to several calculations to bedone on worksheets.