Today
I was reading Bloomberg/Business Week and found an interesting
article about tax preparation. The author (who has a lot better
income than most of us) decided to have his taxes prepared in four
different places to see if there were differences. His income was
$431,388 for the year. The numbers represent his combined tax due or
refund from state and local income taxes.
Taxslayer
online calculated he was to receive a refund of $119,544.00 and
charged him $30.00 to prepare the online forms.
H&R
Block charged him $400.00 and found he owed $2,387 to the taxing
bodies.
Hal
Breich charged $400.00 and according to them he had a refund coming
in the amount of $469.00.
RBZ
charged $1,200 to complete the forms and said he owed $4,544.00.
Can
anyone truly doubt there is a serious problem with the system with
this kind of desparity when professionals handle the filing? Every
year I cringe when I hit the send button on Turbo-Tax, wondering if
my friendly IRS associates will be calling. I know I am being honest
but if you have been audited as I have you will know it is not
enjoyable. I filed a couple days ago so we'll see!
Ken
Dillenburg