LOOKING FOR A TAX PROFESSIONAL?

Do you need to find a qualified and competent tax professional to prepare your 2017 income tax returns?  Here is some advice from my website FIND A TAX PROFESSIONAL (click in the title highlighted in blue) –

CHOOSING A TAX PROFESSIONAL

DON’T ASSUME (my annual, perhaps controversial, very important warning)

ALPHABET SOUP (explaining what all the “initials” have to do with preparing a Form 1040)

WHAT TO ASK A POTENTIAL TAX PREPARER

WHAT TO GIVE YOUR TAX PREPARER

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE

The last item – YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE – is very important.  Regardless of who prepares your return you are ultimately responsible for all the information reported on your return!

And while we are talking about preparing your 2017 returns - here is more very important advice – don’t rely on a “box” to prepare a correct tax return!

Have you seen the tv ads for Turbo Tax?  They are the most stupid things I have ever seen. 

Please remember - No software package, or online filing service, is a substitute for knowledge of the Tax Code.  And no tax software package, or online filing service, is a substitute for a competent, experienced tax professional.

As with any software program the rule is "garbage in - garbage out". If you don't know how to enter the information, or what information to enter, you will not get the best, or even a correct, answer.

IRS statistics indicate that taxpayers using do-it-yourself tax software spend an average of between 6 and 10+ hours longer preparing their tax returns (depending on the number of worksheets and schedules) than taxpayers who do manual calculations. Further, the IRS estimates that do-it-yourself software users spend an average of 10 to over 20 hours longer on the return than if they used a paid tax preparer, again depending on the returns’ complexity.

When the IRS comes after you for errors on your tax return you can’t blame it on the software. The US Tax Court has on several occasions rejected the "Turbo-Tax Defense" when a taxpayer attempted to blame tax preparation software for a negligent tax return.

You don’t save any time or get any added guarantees of accuracy.  Paying a competent tax professional to do your return is ultimately much cheaper than taking a chance with a tax software package or an online service!

TTFN