New deductions!

[Possi]

omG

BCP=Blue Cross Plan?????

omGosh, you don't think they took his health insurance do you? Haven't talked to him to ask him all that yet...

I think it's for Bull Crap Pants so he'll be ready for the audit! Good think that tax preparer talks to the IRS agents every day so she knows that she can take all these deductions!

I'd have to do more than TALK to IRS agents to get away with that....

[DaveO]

Is this "wonder preparer" going to represent him at the audit? This looks like a preparer project in the works. I remember well an audit of a few years back. The return had come from a preparer well known within a certain circle for producing huge refunds. However when the audit notice came they were suddenly unable to return a phone call.

The client came to me and I prepped for the audit throwing off a bunch of deductions in the pre-audit interview. When I'm sitting with the IRS agent he is looking over the "C" and asks me "You didn't prepare this did you?" Before I could answer he turned back to the second page and looking at the signature and exclaimed, "Oh my god, not that woman again?"

[Possi]

More affirmations!

Is this "wonder preparer" going to represent him at the audit? This looks like a preparer project in the works. I remember well an audit of a few years back. The return had come from a preparer well known within a certain circle for producing huge refunds. However when the audit notice came they were suddenly unable to return a phone call.

The client came to me and I prepped for the audit throwing off a bunch of deductions in the pre-audit interview. When I'm sitting with the IRS agent he is looking over the "C" and asks me "You didn't prepare this did you?" Before I could answer he turned back to the second page and looking at the signature and exclaimed, "Oh my god, not that woman again?"

I do have a reputation for taking care of the police officers with the city my son works for, but not for cheating and getting fat refunds. I tell them that if one of my officers are audited and we lied, then (waving my hand toward my files) 400 of my best friends are under scrutiny.

I love that real life experience you shared. It affirms my honesty. thanks for sharing~

[oceanlovin'ea]

talk to him

I sure hope you feel you can talk to this person. Ask him where the figures came from. You will be doing him a favor if you point out this stuff to him and let him see what a mess that is.

I have a new client this year who had the same man (older spanish man) doing their taxes for about 20 years. He has been going downhill healthwise lately. His daughter was supposedly helping him. He seemed very thorough and she did not check his figures on the return. He never went over the return with them.

They got audited by IRS for 2006,2007, and 2008 returns and they owe BIG money. They got a tax attorney and are making payments.

Point is they didn't know what he was putting on the tax return. They trusted him. She is a friend of mine and her sister in law came to me this year too. I told her I go over the return with the client and tell them what is on the return. If they see something that should be on there and isn't,we can correct it. Or if some thing on there that shouldn't be, we will fix it.

So talk to him. Show him what that person put on his return. And if he signs it and sends it in, he is saying that those figures are correct and he can back them up.

He may love you forever if you save him from trouble down the road.

[Possi]

I will do that

I sure hope you feel you can talk to this person. Ask him where the figures came from. You will be doing him a favor if you point out this stuff to him and let him see what a mess that is.

I have a new client this year who had the same man (older spanish man) doing their taxes for about 20 years. He has been going downhill healthwise lately. His daughter was supposedly helping him. He seemed very thorough and she did not check his figures on the return. He never went over the return with them.

They got audited by IRS for 2006,2007, and 2008 returns and they owe BIG money. They got a tax attorney and are making payments.

Point is they didn't know what he was putting on the tax return. They trusted him. She is a friend of mine and her sister in law came to me this year too. I told her I go over the return with the client and tell them what is on the return. If they see something that should be on there and isn't,we can correct it. Or if some thing on there that shouldn't be, we will fix it.

So talk to him. Show him what that person put on his return. And if he signs it and sends it in, he is saying that those figures are correct and he can back them up.

He may love you forever if you save him from trouble down the road.

I didn't talk to him last night. It was late when I got the return, his wife dropped it off, and I sent him a text saying he could call anytime. I'm glad he didn't call last night because I really was distraught. I'm in a much better frame of mind after discussing this over the water-cooler with everyone.

Thanks for the level-headed advise. I will talk to him and I'll let you know how it turns out.

[JG EA]

It is always amazing to me how TP's don't feel responsible for their numbers because they went to a preparer. I always feel they know and think that they are getting away with something. But many times they think: I took the information in and gave it to the preparer, it was done correctly because they are the professional, and my what a good job they did.

I got a question about this very scenario by someone for whom I don't do their taxes. Their new preparer found where their old preparer had not included much of their SE income. They were horrified and called me to see what recourse they had with the old preparer.I explained that many times they do cover penalty, but not the taxes. The old one could say they didn't get the information. But the point is the client didn't know. And they want to amend and pay back their refund.

We are so attuned to the nuances on a tax return - or just the plain bold numbers staring us in the face - that it surprises us when people don't really know.

So, I agree that you would be doing them a favor to explain what is going on with their tax return. The rest is up to them.

I used to think that educating clients is a mistake, because then they can do it themselves. Now I think it increases their respect for our job.

[BHoffman]

Not so PITA clients

I have two client for whom I must prepare actual working papers to prove every number on the tax return because they go over them with a very fine toothed comb. The working papers have to be organized and highlighted so that a client of reasonable intelligence can see and understand.

There are lot of preparers out there, I'm sure, who would consider a client like this to be real PITA.

I wish all of my clients would do this, and I wish I had the time to prepare these kinds of working papers for all of them..and I wish it would all be billable time

[Possi]

Not PITAs to me either

I have a few clients like that and I tell them how much I appreciate their being involved in their tax return.

And I would like to think this client was just blindly led to the slaughter, but I'm not so sure he is innocent in this. He is an educated man after all.

I understand about trusting the professionals, though. There was a time I trusted the cheating accountant! Until I learned a little about taxes and I worked for him!! What an eye opener!

[Possi]

Triple dipping

I talked to my client today.

He said the depreciation (for which there is NO form) is for his TRUCK. So are the REPAIRS.

SO IS THE MILEAGE!

WOO HOO! I didn't know we could TRIPLE DIP on VEHICLE expenses!

Even he doesn't know what BCP is... although she asked a lot of questions about health insurance.

[BHoffman]

I haven't seen enthusiasm like that in a long time. My sister in law tried to prepare their tax return once, but gave up and let me do it. She had taken mortgage interest on Sch A, Sch E, home office, and Sch C.

[FEDUKE404]

Sign of things to come?

This fellow in NC received active prison time - and rumor has it that ALL (or at least most) of his clients were eventually audited - as a result of his "creative" preparation skills.

"Approximately 60 percent of his clients were car salesmen. [He] materially overstated the itemized deductions and business expenses on his clients’ federal tax returns..."

"... attempted to obstruct the state’s investigation by asking some of his clients to create false documents that would substantiate the fraudulent deductions and business expenses he had included on their returns."

http://www.dornc.com/press/jan05/miller.html

FE

[BP.]

Why would someone in law enforcement want to be on the wrong side of the law? You can prob persuade him to see the light, possi, for his own good.

[Jesse]

Reminds me of a story

Why would someone in law enforcement want to be on the wrong side of the law? You can prob persuade him to see the light, possi, for his own good.

My dog totally freaks in thunderstorms. We were gone during one while we left the dog in the house, poor thing freaked out, tore through the screen and escaped. Someone found him and brought him to the police station. We received a fine of $168 for dog running at large. Tried to negotiate but the officer, who was a client, told me he could not do anything about it because "it's the law".

I found out he was doing some construction "side jobs", so I asked him about it and advised that he needs to report this income. He "doesn't make it traceable" is what he told me. I told him but "it's the law", either I report it or I don't do your return. He's no longer my client - oh well!

[Burke]

She had taken mortgage interest on Sch A, Sch E, home office, and Sch C.

Sounds like a new one I got this year. Brought in last year's Turbo Tax. Looked really nice, until I dug into a few things. Like the same mileage and bus expenses taken on Sche C, Form 2106, and UPE on Sche E. After all, I suppose TT does ask all those questions about each form...... Also, the fact that he sold 7.78 shares of some fund and reported $24,000+ in income and $147.08 in basis. (No it was not Berkshire Hathaway.)
Sigh..... Nice guy too, just doesn't know what he is doing. I asked him to bring me the source documents for the stock sales, and he printed out all the TT worksheets.

[Gretel]

Why would someone in law enforcement want to be on the wrong side of the law? You can prob persuade him to see the light, possi, for his own good.

By these standards, Attorneys should be very truthful people, but I think they are in a group with the highest rate of cheating. And yes, they know what they are doing. Having to give an Attorney a 1099 for every dollar paid to them, speaks for itself.