What does your "gut" say
Hello, I agree with ST, this could be an opportunity to get a good new client. I had a similar situation where someone gave me documents that were obviously photocopied and the dates where crossed and and the current year's tax filing date were handwritten in. Te documents related to a large charitable donation that was deducted on their tax return the previous year. That pointed me to integrity. Could I trust the client? What was their response? Is this case it was anger that I even questioned what they gave me and I said "goodbye". They went to another CPA and he knew me and called me with the same issue. He said "goodbye" too. If you point out the obvious mistakes in last years returns and this person wants the errors fixed and wants to be a good taxpayer and play by the rules and fix the return and come clean then I may take a chance (but I would also look back a couple more years). So many people think they know what they are doing and they get advise from the Seven-Eleven clerk who sells slurpies instead of listening to a qualified tax preparer (I had that happen to me with a client as well). I told him to have the Seven-Eleven clerk prepare the tax return for him. If you save him from an embarassing IRS audit and potential jailtime, he may be your best customer and pass the word around and you will get more business. If he doesn;t want to address last years return he has an integrity issue and I would run as fast as the "road runner" from this person. Trust your "gut" feeling when you talk with him. Good luck and let us know how you make out.
Hello, I agree with ST, this could be an opportunity to get a good new client. I had a similar situation where someone gave me documents that were obviously photocopied and the dates where crossed and and the current year's tax filing date were handwritten in. Te documents related to a large charitable donation that was deducted on their tax return the previous year. That pointed me to integrity. Could I trust the client? What was their response? Is this case it was anger that I even questioned what they gave me and I said "goodbye". They went to another CPA and he knew me and called me with the same issue. He said "goodbye" too. If you point out the obvious mistakes in last years returns and this person wants the errors fixed and wants to be a good taxpayer and play by the rules and fix the return and come clean then I may take a chance (but I would also look back a couple more years). So many people think they know what they are doing and they get advise from the Seven-Eleven clerk who sells slurpies instead of listening to a qualified tax preparer (I had that happen to me with a client as well). I told him to have the Seven-Eleven clerk prepare the tax return for him. If you save him from an embarassing IRS audit and potential jailtime, he may be your best customer and pass the word around and you will get more business. If he doesn;t want to address last years return he has an integrity issue and I would run as fast as the "road runner" from this person. Trust your "gut" feeling when you talk with him. Good luck and let us know how you make out.
Comment