by henigan

Created on: November 06, 2008

A person who earns a living as a regular employee does not need a tax professional and some of the stories I have heard and the things I have seen astound me. Yes. Be afraid of the tax professional.

I have a friend with a three year old child who is working just to keep herself in the job market. When her daughter goes to school, she will go to work full time. Her husband earns more than enough to support them. This woman was advised to file Single so she could claim the Earned Income Credit.

This piece of advice came from a representative of the IRS. The agent told my friend her income was too low for the IRS to audit. Yet, I know someone who lives on a peneion of $11,000 a year. He was audited and owes about $600 in back taxes.

As a professional working at one of the chains, I declined to do a tax return based on the same claim. A man sat down at my desk and told me he was married and he wanted to file so that he could claim some of his children and his wilfe could claim the others. That way, they could both get the Earned Income Credit. I told him that as long as I knew that was what he was doing, I could't do it.

The woman sitting at the desk in front of me heard the entire conversation. She told him to sit down and filed the claim for him. I do not know about other people but as a tax preparer, I was just as afraid of getting caught as I am of not paying my taxes.

Something else you should be aware of is that the professionals in chains work on a commission. Someone who goes to work and has no deductions, besides their children, should be answering simple questions. Where I worked, the short form took about five minutes to complete. The long form asks questions about employee expenses, medical expenses and other expenses from Schedule A that most people who go there do not need to answer. The company charges more for the long form or interview. There were times when I was there that other professionals would revert back to the short form but usuallly clients just complained about the price and had it deducted from their returns.

To make it clear, I worked about twenty hours a week. My hourly pay rate was $7.00. My bonus after four months was $189. My conscience could not permit me to take money from people who were honest and counting on their refund.

Direct deposit takes the same amount of time whether you use a professional or do it yourself. e-file is available to anyone with internet access.

If your only deductions are your spouse and children, you do not need a tax professional. You need internet access, free at most libraries and an address where the IRS can send your check or a bank where your refund can be depositied.

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