New season around the corner

[taxguykarl]

And so it begins...

Tax season that is. I just got back from the meeting/training sessions for us veteran preparers. It seems the IRS will start taking electronic submissions on 1/14/11; as April 15th is a holiday in DC this year, Tax Day is April 18 this year. What fun (major sarcasm). The place will be a zoo both 4/15 (a Friday) and 4/18.

The clock is now ticking...my Black Friday equivalent is just 29 days away.

OTOH, I'll have some good SC posts as corporate found a bank that is still allowed to do refund anticipation loans (i.e. a major source of SC's and EW's).

Stay tuned...

Yes, you are welcome to PM me with your tax questions.

[MoonCat]

I always get mine done as soon as my W2 is in my hot little hand. Beat the crowds, I say.

[Catwoman2965]

You have my utmost sympathy; my dad did tax prep after he retired, and worked for one of the big, national companies. He enjoyed the work, and most of the customers, but RALs were the bane of his existence. He was required to push them, and as he KNEW they were not a good idea, did as little pushing as he could get away with. He'd come home frustrated many times!

After a couple years he got sick of all the corporate BS and moved on to volunteering for AARP which was so much less stressful, and he really enjoyed. doing.

[Aethian]

Woot another reason for me to hate my birthday... Taxes.

[zombiequeen]

My mum's the township treasurer, so she gets to collect taxes from people. We all gather around the table at tax time to hear her stories, especially the ones that pull the "good old boys club" crap.

[EvilEmpryss]

I used to do volunteer tax preparation in the military, and I can't tell you the number of military wives who tried to fake having an in-home daycare so they could write off their normal household expenses. If I knew them (and knew they sure as hell weren't running daycares), I would refuse to do their taxes. I was told it wouldn't come back on me if they got audited, but I wasn't going to risk putting myself on the line for them.

I've considered doing more volunteer work, but I've been too concerned about the liability issues to do more than offer to help close friends.

[taxguykarl]

If I knew them (and knew they sure as hell weren't running daycares), I would refuse to do their taxes. I was told it wouldn't come back on me if they got audited, but I wasn't going to risk putting myself on the line for them.

I've considered doing more volunteer work, but I've been too concerned about the liability issues to do more than offer to help close friends.

Whoever told you that gave you some bum advice. The penalties for knowingly prepping a bogus return were always there--the crackdowns started about 3 years ago.

[Mytical]

I know how to do simple tax returns..so I used to do a few friends returns (never charged a dime, nor did I accept 'tips'). Until one of my friends wanted me to flat out lie on two returns (one for them, one for the spouse) saying they were living separated (when they were not) to maximize EIC (ie they wanted to claim one person had one half of the children, and one had the other half). Stopped doing taxes for friends after that.

Been a preparer for H.R. Block..and all I gotta say is .. you are a stronger person then me. Tax preparing during the height is not like Black Friday..no Black Friday ever has been that bad. Though at least people don't get trampled I guess....(though sometimes you wonder).

Here is some oldies but goodies you might recognize.

1) "Can I claim my snooky wookums as a dependent?" Where 'snooky wookums' is a pet of some kind or other.
2) "I only get visitation with my kids once every other week, my spouse claims them, but I want to claim them also!"
3) "I can claim my wedding and honeymoon as a business deduction .. right?"