FP is largely correct about the people who are auditing you. They are by and large idiots, and you know a lot more about your situation than they do. When we were getting audited my wife was freaking out, and while I could show her straight away how I was right and they were wrong she still freaked out about it. Because "they" were the IRS.

After sending crap back and forth with them for a few months unwilling to compromise, we finally got our phone hearing or whatever they called it. Within about 20 seconds of the beginning of the phone conference I realized that I was smarter and more prepared than the person on the other end, and easily showed them their errors, and where it appeared to them that I messed up. To the sweet tune of $21. After hours, days and months of time spent writing back and forth we cleared up the issue in 5 minutes.

However, my argument about hiring a CPA still stands. It is your time, put a value on it and then decide. I also agree there are a lot of CPAs out there who are very bad, and overly conservative. I just get organized according to my guy's checklist and then hand the stuff over.

It is like this for everything in our lives isn't it though? I can change my own brake pads and save $100, but I could also spend that time on the river, ocean, or with my family.