Choosing Someone To Do Tax Preparation

For most people, the tax season is a headache-inducing time of the year. Aside from the tons of computation that one has to do, an individual would also have to make sure that they fill their forms properly and have the needed attachment in place. Although this might be of little concern to people who are extremely organized with their records, the same cannot be said for majority of the people. This is where the help of a tax preparer such as the Karliner Tax Services provider comes into play.

When seeking the help of a tax preparer, a person has to consider a number of factors in mind, one of which is the preparer’s qualifications. With the release of the recent guidelines from the IRS, one has to keep in mind that they should only get a preparer who has been issued a Preparer Tax Identification Number, or PTIN. It is also a good idea to consider only a tax preparer who is affiliated with a relative professional organization and who makes sure that he or she does continued education. The last one is particularly important, as the preparer has to be aware of the different updates in the guidelines when it comes to tax preparation.

Once an individual has made a shortlist of possible tax preparer to hire, experts such as the Karliner Tax Services recommend checking into the person’s history. If possible, one should get a tax preparer who has not had any negative records at the Better Business Bureau. Aside from this, one should also look into the person’s licensure status as well as the presence of any disciplinary action. This can easily be coordinated with the state board of accountancy as well as state associations.

Everyone should be wary of tax preparers who claim to be able to help people take home a larger amount of refund. In the same manner, people should also stay away from tax preparers who charge fees based on how much refund a person is able to get. Under no circumstance should a tax preparer have the refund deposited to his or her account as the whole refund should go directly to the person.

If possible, one should go for a tax preparer who makes use of electronic filing. Aside from being a sign that the tax preparer is someone who is trusted by many, the use of electronic filing also lessens the probability of errors caused by human intervention. Electronic filing has also been proven to be one of the most secure ways of processing tax returns. 

In order to ensure that the tax preparer is able to do a good job of filing the tax returns properly, the client concerned would have to make sure that the tax preparer has the entire document he or she needs. This would include receipts, pay stubs, and W-2. One has to be wary of tax preparers who are willing to push through with the filing even before the client has received his or her copy of the W-2.

About the author: Laura Hoover is a former tax advisor who now takes various home-based gigs such as tax computation and consultation. She is currently thinking of getting back into the industry and get a job at a tax servicing company like Karliner Tax Sevices.