How to Pick the Right Tax Preparer
Michele Ruiz: With the tax finally deadline of April 15th approaching, you can either prepare your tax returns yourself or hire a tax expert to do it for you. The key is to pick someone who is reputable and can do the job right.
Male: Well, the one thing you need to remember is that ultimately you the taxpayer are responsible for the tax return that you sign of on. But if you need help then of course, you can turn to the professional tax preparation community. But, just like you’re careful in selecting your doctor or a lawyer you should be as careful in selecting a tax profession, a tax preferably.
Michele Ruiz: In the recent survey, Hispanics used text preparation services, significantly more than non-Hispanics. Plus, Hispanics are more likely to receive a refund and less like did you owe money to the government, the non-Hispanics. So, who is qualified to prepare and file your taxes?
Male: If you are not going to prepare your taxes your self and you go for professional help, CPA’s, attorneys, enrolled agents will pass the test given by the IRS. Those kinds of people are qualified to do your taxes but it is really a consumer’s decision on who they go to do their taxes with.
Michele Ruiz: If you are considering hiring a tax professional, here are some helpful tips.
Male: What you want to look for in selecting a tax preparer is actually someone who is going to ask you a bunch of questions. They are going to ask you for your receipts and your records of your income and everything that would be allowable in allotting you clean, different valuable credits and deductions. They should ask you a lot of questions.
Michele Ruiz: It is also important for you to ask your tax professional plenty of questions.
Male: You want to ask them a variety of questions. You want to ask them how long you have been preparing your taxes. Are you expecting to be in the neighborhood a year from now because you want to be able to get back to your tax preparer if any questions come up? You want to ask them what is their training been? What is their background? You may want to look on the wall and see, do they have a certificate from some professional association or are they a member of the group that continuing education for them on taxes.
Michele Ruiz: Also, you should check to see if any complaints have been filed against the tax preparer at the better business bureau. You might want to also contact your safe board of accountancies to find out whether your CPA is licensed and has any disciplinary actions against him or her. But before you make your decision be aware of this warning signs on tax professionals to avoid.
Male: The kind of tax preparer you would want to avoid is the tax preparer who promises you a great or more gigantic refund than the tax preparer down the block or down the street. You want to be careful about that. You want to avoid a tax preparer who is going to say, I would get you a big, big refund but I am going to take a certain percentage of it. You also want to avoid tax preparer who start getting involve in shenanigans with Social Security number or borrowing other numbers or having and claiming more children than you had.
Michele Ruiz: Also, be aware of tax preparers who encourage you to sign a blank tax return. Finally, the cost of using a tax professional varies from service to service and depends on the complexity of your return.
Male: The IRS does not set such standards for what tax preparers are charged for their services. Those are based on market rates and the community where the tax preparers are offering it.
Michele Ruiz: On the low end you may be charged $40.00 to $50.00 to several thousand dollars at the high end. The average for an itemized return is about $200.00 and do not forget the deadline for filling your taxes is April 15th.
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