Still need to check your tax

[Cowpuncher]

Just got my 2012 return back from the CPA. I knew I was going to owe them money, but was a bit surprised by the amount.

Noticed they had entered a long term gain as a short term gain - difference is about $5000 in tax.

It is still a manual process to enter data, but the professionals have a duty to get it right.

Still, knowing about what you are going to owe is very helpful.

CP

 

[Triangle Bar]

Yeah, everybody makes mistakes and your right even the experts need to be double checked.

Last year my tax man took some ranch raised cattle as regular income instead of as a capital gain. It would have cost me about $500 in taxes.

It's expensive but well worth the cost as mentioned in the High Plains thread.

 

[leanin' H]

6 years ago i had my own electrical contracting business. We hired a very reputable firm with great references from guys i respect, to do our taxes for us and our business. They did a great job and then we got the dreaded AUDIT notice. Seems our CPA firm had deprecitaed a piece of equipment in-correctly. The IRS decided we did not meet the criteria for some rule on depreciation that the CPA thought we should be able to. Long story short, we owed nearly 7 grand after it was over. Our CPA paid for the IRS penalty and i paid the correct tax which was over $5000. Then the IRS said we did it on purpose and took away some credit we had been eligible for. But we appealed that and they gave the credit back to us after several meetings and lots of paperwork. Even CPA's can make mistakes. The sooner they have a FLAT TAX THAT EVERYONE PAYS WITHOUT ALL THE STUPID BURECRATIC BS THE BETTER! But that would be too easy.

 

[Faster horses]

A few years ago we changed from a regular accountant (he had made
some errors that I caught and when asked about it, he wanted to side
step the issue) to a CPA.

Last year we got audited for the first time ever.
I had to meet with the IRS person in Rapid City.
The CPA looked up everything they wanted to know, even
though he hadn't done the taxes for the year we were being audited.
I took all the info with me to meet with the IRS agent and our accountant
was on the phone while the agent went over the questions. Everything
was answered to her satisfaction and when we were done, she said
to me that was the FIRST time she had done an audit where she didn't
have to set up another meeting to find out what she needed to know.
I'm so very glad we had a CPA for making the whole thing less stressful
and very efficient.