Yes, many (most?) accountants that don't specialize in personal accounting and tax filing recognize the value in having someone more knowledgeable than them take care of documents with a large impact on their lives.
Yes. A friend was recommending her accountant the other day- she said initially it put her off that he didn't do his own taxes, but he explained that doing your own taxes is like representing yourself in court - even if you're qualified to do it for others, you should never do it for yourself.
So why exactly are you advised not to do your own taxes or represent yourself in court even if qualified? (Not a rhetorical question; I'm curious about the answer.)
The penalty for you making a mistake is higher than the penalty for your accountant/lawyer making a mistake. By "penalty" I mean negative consequences, not just explicit fines.
Okay, what sort of negative consequences? And why does having someone else make the mistakes on your behalf protect you from the consequences?
I imagine it is harder to get charged with fraud when your accountant files your taxes wrong then when you do your taxes and file them wrong.
While representing yourself in court you can accidentally waive your fifth amendment rights.
I've never heard specifically, but I always assumed that you are less rational when handling your own problems than someone else's, and these fields both require pretty clear thinking.
You derive no additional protection from having someone else file it - the taxpayer remains fully responsible for his/her return under all circumstances. That is the way it is locally anyway - its entirely possible that the US has some arbitrary rule in this regard that changes things.