I Don’t Think My Taxes Were Done Right?
Who is doing your taxes?
Every year, new clients ask me to review their income tax returns from previous years as they feel they were not prepared correctly. In most cases, if they were indeed prepared by a tax professional, they are correct.
However, I have consistently found numerous and substantial errors made by some tax preparers in the Cornwall area. Of course, I cannot name them, but I can give you examples of tell-tale signs to be wary of and if you know anyone having their taxes done this way, please warn them.
- MANUAL CALCULATIONS – All professional tax preparers now use software and offer efiling or netfiling – if a tax preparer is still doing taxes manually on paper, they are most likely missing important loopholes and deductions (I can vouch for this as I have corrected over 250 tax returns over the last 10 years with calculation errors and omissions from having them done by manually on paper).
- OVERCHARGING – Because doing an average tax return manually on paper takes 2-3 hours (while it takes only 15-20 minutes by computer), you are probably paying for unnecessary labour
- LENGTHY RETURN – A tax professional should not take longer than 1 or 5 days (at the very most) to do an individual tax return – if it’s taking 2 to 3 weeks (or months), something is wrong or you are not considered important enough !
- ERRORS & OMISSIONS INSURANCE – It is very important that whoever does your taxes, whether an individual or a firm, that they are insured in case they make an error or omit information that could cause you to be reassessed or audited. You might save $10 by using a tax preparer who does not pay $1200 a year for their insurance, however, you could face hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars in fines and interest if they make a mistake. BE CAREFUL and take the time to ask the question “Do you have E&O Insurance?”.
Posted in: I DON'T THINK MY TAXES WERE DONE CORRECTLY!
