Fraud Tip of the Day - April 4

How to Hire a Good Tax Preparer

Claiming to be a good tax preparer is one thing, delivering is another. As April 15 draws near, you may notice an increase in tax preparer advertising, each claiming to be better than the next. How does one decide which to hire? That's only one of the questions you need to answer. The first should be whether you even need professional help preparing your taxes. Here are a few things to consider while weighing this decision:

If you're filing a simple return, the money may be wasted.
Inexpensive tax preparation software can simplify the process for many of us.
Ultimately, you're solely responsible for the accuracy of your return no matter who prepares it.

Should you decide to hire a tax preparation specialist to assist you in preparing your taxes we want to repeat that ultimately you are responsible for the accuracy of your return even if someone else prepared it. So you want to hire someone that's both honest and capable. Below are several tips on how to select a good, honest tax preparer:

Be skeptical of preparers who claim they can get you a larger refund than others. If your return is prepared correctly, every preparer should get very similar numbers.
If a preparer guarantees results or bases fees on a percentage of the amount of the refund, beware. According to the IRS, "A practitioner may not charge a contingent fee (percentage of your refund) for preparing an original tax return."
Choose a preparer you will have easy access to. Be sure to check who will actually be preparing the return - if a firm delegates your work to someone with less training or to an unknown worker, take your business somewhere else. Check if the preparer will send your return to a foreign country for preparation. If so, that's a red flag - foreign countries don't have the same security and privacy laws as the U.S., so you won't have the same recourse if your information is compromised.
Check the preparers history with the Better Business Bureau, the state's board of accountancy for CPAs or the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility for enrolled agents. Make sure the preparers credentials meet your needs.

Once you've hired a preparer, here's what you need to know::

Your preparer must sign the return and complete the preparer portions of the form and include his or her identifying number. He or she should also give you a copy of the return.
Be sure to review your return and understand your entries before it is sent in.
Never sign a blank return or sign in pencil.

Visit our Tax Scam section for more tax fraud information!