Without A Guarantee!

Posted by Bruce Mc on Oct 20, 2008 in Choosing a preparer, Opinions, Preparer, Tax Preparation | 2 comments

Without A Guarantee!

This is another addition to the series “Mistakes made when choosing a paid tax preparer”.

I already touched on the topic of guarantees earlier, but since having one or more guarantees is so important – especially when it comes to filing your taxes with the IRS – I thought I better go into a little bit more detail just to make sure you are clear on what should be expected of a tax professional in this area.

In my assessment, the more guarantees, the better. So you know, I’m talking about IN WRITING guarantees, NOT some tax professional verbally telling you, “Oh, yeah – you’ll never have a problem if I prepare your taxes, but if you do, I guarantee I’ll fix it. No problem.”

That is not the kind of ‘guarantee’ I’m talking about. I’ve heard too many horror stories about taxpayers getting a letter from the IRS, then take it to their accountant, and then the letter sits on a desk gathering dust. Or the stories about the CPA who makes some calls on your behalf, but you get charged an arm and a leg in the process. Or sadly, a taxpayer doesn’t get any help from the person who prepared their taxes for them so they go it alone and call the IRS themselves and figure out what to do and not to do during this normally ugly IRS correspondence. This can be a nightmarish!

Don’t go down this road! In your case, just make sure the paid tax practitioner you are working with has guarantees, in writing, for you to hold on to if ever needed. And make sure the guarantees include stuff you want guaranteed! Let me give you an example:

I’ve seen some accountants guarantee they will file your taxes for you by April 15^th or they will file an extension for you. Well, whipy skipy dipy do! That sure makes you feel good in the morning, doesn’t it?

Other weak guarantees I’ve seen in the tax industry are, “We guarantee we will begin preparing your tax return the same day we meet with you.” That means nothing. Most don’t care when I start preparing their taxes. They want to know how long it is going to take me to finish it and do so without leaving out silly errors I know I should have caught.

But truth be told …

If you got to sneak a peek behind what ‘REALLY’ goes on in most tax professionals’ offices, you’d be SHOCKED!)

So let’s pretend you knew what was really going on once you left your accountant’s office. I GUARANTEE you’d be saying (or thinking) the following:

·        … you barely looked at my return because you were too overloaded with other tax work and you didn’t hire enough competent employees to help you during tax season …

·        … you don’t trust other tax preparers doing your returns, but since you get so tired doing everything yourself, stupid mistakes become common place and you hope no one notices (kind of like an ostrich with his head in the sand)

·        … if I decided to take my taxes and go somewhere else, you won’t care for very long because you’ve got too much going on, getting so many different files mixed up, you don’t have time to even notice …

The moral of this story is:

Protect yourself and file your taxes with a tax business that’s been around for a long time and can back up everything they do with multiple guarantees. And remember: the guarantees should be in areas you care about, like:

·        Tax Return Accuracy …

·        Speed of Service …

·        Most Money Legally Yours …

·        Ongoing IRS Protection For Years After Filing …

These are the things YOU care about! Make sure the tax professional you choose stands behind these critical areas of tax filing so you get the most out of your tax filing experience!

Again, I want to invite any and all guest post on this subject. I want to hear from all bloggers or just readers with their own input. Let’s see what you see I am missing. If you have some words of wisdom on this subject please let us share it with everyone, if it is something that has already been covered, so what, I am looking for others to tell what they know or have learned about finding a paid preparer.