This year was a genuine CPA, had a rather complicated filing and decided to go with a professional. Last year was a tax preparer my wife had used for several years that I fired when I found the mistake. Both mistakes along the lines of $2000 in our favor.

I’m a bit miffed. We filed an extension at this one’s request (despite the CPA having all our documents in plenty of time) and paid the estimate, now get to wait for the Feds to take their sweet time in giving some of our money back. I am glad they did all the complicated parts, but the damn mistake was about as simple as you could get.

Thankfully next year will be simple again and I’ll do it myself.

Had similar a few years ago.

I have an accounting degree & was fine filing our taxes when we both had regular W2 jobs.

My wife went self-employed & I used a CPA from then on.

Former CPA did our taxes in 2018 & apparently we overpaid, to the tune of about $2,500 which we got back this month. We didn't know it at the time, so the IRS check in the mail was a nice surprise.

Turbo tax ran me about $150 for the Wifes W2, my W2 and small business filing. Easy peazy

chongosuerte - that stinks. sorry to hear it happened.

Just curious, what did they miss and how did you find it? Maybe others should check their returns.

If you under pay, the IRS will check your return

Yeah, hiring a genuine CPA is no guarantee of getting a competent person unfortunately.

I used Turbo Tax for 20+ years of self employment and fairly extensive Stock and Bond income with absolutely no problems.

My Financial Advisor's CPA checked my work a couple of times for free and said to keep doing what I was doing.

quote:

eah, hiring a genuine CPA is no guarantee of getting a competent person unfortunately.

^^^^^^^^^^^
Most CPAs carry a policy known as errors and omissions which pays for mistakes. I would ask about this coverage.

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
Just curious, what did they miss and how did you find it? Maybe others should check their returns.

Oh no…I expect everyone here would have enough sense to check to make sure their kid was listed somewhere on their taxes.

Yep. And to make it even better, the email they sent with the tax forms told us to be on the lookout for a deposit for the 2021 credit…for the kid they forgot to put on the 2020 taxes.

Top. Men.

We have been using a CPA for many years . Same guy for the last five . He's not cheap but he knows his shit and has been worth every penny .

I'm fairly certain you can amend the returns to rectify an issue like that.

I use a CPA firm where the work performed by the CPA is double checked by somebody higher up. I have sent others to them where they have asked to go over previous returns to see if there was anything missed so that they could file an amended return.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I'm fairly certain you can amend the returns to rectify an issue like that.

I have had to amend mine before. Left out a rather large equipment receipt one year. Had my CPA amend it. Cannot recall the exact amount, but it was worth more than $500 to me.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I'm fairly certain you can amend the returns to rectify an issue like that.

I use a CPA firm where the work performed by the CPA is double checked by somebody higher up. I have sent others to them where they have asked to go over previous returns to see if there was anything missed so that they could file an amended return.

You can. All you have to do is file an IRS form 1040-X form. I did it once when my Father In Law's tax preparer made a huge mistake on his return.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
We have been using a CPA for many years . Same guy for the last five . He's not cheap but he knows his shit and has been worth every penny .

Same here, the one we've used the last couple years has been well worth the $$.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:


Oh no…I expect everyone here would have enough sense to check to make sure their kid was listed somewhere on their taxes.

Yep. And to make it even better, the email they sent with the tax forms told us to be on the lookout for a deposit for the 2021 credit…for the kid they forgot to put on the 2020 taxes.

Top. Men.

Wow, just wow. A question of how many dependents you have if any missed by a CPA. It's even a question that's asked by any store front tax service as they go through the questionaire, nevermind TurboTax which it does.

I can understand if people would rather use tax professionals. I do my own taxes since I've studied the booklets manually even before tax software came out. I understand the basic concepts and can follow along. On the other hand, I have to contract out stuff that many people here do it themselves.