OOPS!
I forgot to include the following
item in yesterday’s review of the recent tax filing season.
A long-time client, whose returns I
have been preparing since 1984, got married in 2011 to a non-client whose tax
returns had been prepared by a CPA firm.
The couple had given their 2011 “stuff”
to the spouse’s CPA for review, and the CPA generated joint federal and NJ
state tax returns for the couple.
The client asked me to review the
preliminary returns generated by the CPA before finalizing and filing them.
Based on a quick review of the federal
return, and my knowledge of my client’s prior returns (a copy of my client’s
2010 federal and state returns had been provided to the CPA along with the 2011
“stuff”), it appeared that the federal return was ok (I did not verify actual
entries to original source documents such as W-2s and 1099s, nor did I check
the math – I merely reviewed it for “theory”).
However as soon as I looked at the
CPA-generated 2011 NJ-1040 I discovered a glaring error – to the tune of about
$1,800.00.
Having
me, a previously unenrolled preparer, review the returns generated by a CPA (who
does not have to take a test to verify tax knowledge as I must eventually do)
saved the couple about $1,800.00 in state income tax!
I did not need to enter the
information into a tax preparation software package to find the error – my naked
eyes spotted it right away.
I have been saying for years that I
have found more errors on tax returns, federal and state, prepared by CPAs than
any other category of preparer – including “self-prepared” returns.
Needless to say I felt great
joy! And so did the client and his new
spouse.
TTFN
3 comments:
Perhaps you could share the nature of the error and educate caps what to look for...
And what could cause such a large difference on a NJ return?
That is strange for the CPA to make such a mistake. It is great that you granted them some tax relief!
Post a Comment