A tax accountant has been trained as an accountant and is able to inspect, prepare, and maintain financial records for a business or individual. However a tax accountants main focus is on preparing and maintaining tax information.

Tax accountants also advise businesses about the tax advantages and disadvantages of certain business decisions. Accountants must have skills in math and using the computer because computers are often used to make graphs, reports and summaries. Nearly all companies require that a tax accountant have at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and many even require a master’s degree level of education.

Almost all businesses and many individuals would greatly benefit from having a regular tax accountant. So how do you choose the right tax accountant for you or your business? Here are a few questions that may help you make the decision:

Tags: tax accountant, tax attorney, tax help, Tax Preparation, tax resolution, Tax Return, tax softwaretax accountant, tax attorney, tax help, Tax Preparation, tax resolution, Tax Return, tax software

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Have you seen that ad for tax preparation software? You know the one I mean. It says that anyone, even a caveman - no, wait, that is a different commercial - even a “math impaired” or an “unorganized” individual can prepare his or her own income tax return by simply using the software package.

This is pure bull! No tax preparation software is a substitute for knowledge of the tax code. And no tax preparation software is a substitute for the services of a trained tax professional.

As with any software program the rule is “garbage in - garbage out”. If you don’t know how to enter the information, or what information to enter, you will not get the best, or even the correct, answer.

As a professional tax preparer I attend several tax preparation workshops, seminars, conferences and conventions during the year. I am constantly hearing instructors and participants alike discuss the problems with their tax preparation software, the answer often being that one has to override the system and “force” the correct entry.

IRS statistics indicate that taxpayers using do-it-yourself tax software spend an average of between 6 and 10+ hours longer preparing their tax returns (depending on the number of worksheets and schedules) than preparers who did manual calculations. Further, the IRS estimates that do-it-yourself software users spend an average of 10 to over 20 hours longer than a tax preparer, again depending on complexity.

H+R Block has sued the company that produces the tax software in the above mentioned ad, and has asked a federal judge to shut down the advertising campaign.

The bottom line is - if you don’t know what you are doing do not rely on a tax preparation software package to make up for your lack of knowledge. Using a tax professional will save you time, aggravation and money!

Speaking of tax season ads, the commercials for the Henry + Richard and Jackson Hewitt fast food tax preparation chains continue to emphasize the fact that you can walk into their office and walk out with a check, and not that they can prepare your return competently and accurately so that you pay the absolute least amount of tax possible (to be fair, H+R does have an ad that tells you they will pay the interest and penalty for their mistakes).

These chains are pushing Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs), which are very profitable. While a great thing for Henry + Richard and Jackson Hewitt, a Refund Anticipation Loan is NOT a good thing for the individual taxpayer. It is nothing more than a short-term loan at a usurious interest rate. The interest rate on some of these RALs is triple-digit, similar to a loan shark. A recent Washington State Journal article reported that the interest rate could be as high as 521%, with more than 10% of the refund going to fees!

Henry + Richard have gotten into a lot of legal trouble with their RAL programs. In December H+R Block reached a $62.5 Million settlement with an estimated 8 Million customers in more than two dozen states over Refund Anticipation Loans. But they continue to aggressively promote RALs during the tax season because of the huge profits.

Unfortunately, Refund Anticipation Loans appeal most to, and take unfair advantage of, the working poor and other low-income taxpayers who need every penny of their tax refund.

If you need your refund quickly use direct deposit. With direct deposit your refund should be deposited into your bank account within 10 days. If that is not good enough investigate other methods of short-term borrowing. Even a cash advance from a credit card is “more better” than a Refund Anticipation Loan, providing you pay back the advance as soon as the refund arrives.

copyright (c) 2006 by Robert D Flach LLC

Robert D Flach is a tax professional with 34 tax seasons of experience preparing 1040s for individuals in all walks of life. He writes and publishes the free monthly online newsletter STUFF AND SUCH (http://rdftaxpro.tripod.com/stuffandsuch) and several other websites, as well as several print newsletters and reports on tax planning and preparation. For more information on his websites go to http://rdftaxpro.tripod.com/websites

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Preparing and filing your taxes is a less than exciting task. Much like visiting the dentist it something that must simply be done. There are ways to make it a little less painful.

Get a Jump Start on Your Taxes

As with many things, procrastinating on the preparation of your taxes is a bad move. Tax preparation procrastination leads to one thing - frustration. If you try to sit down, organize your records, fill out forms, recheck your math, discover a stack of missing receipts, redo your taxes, recheck your math, discover another set of receiptswell, you get the idea. Doing it all at once is a recipe for disaster and mayhem. Don’t do this if at all possible. Instead, spread out the tasks. While you are waiting for clothes to dry, grab your receipts and organize them. A few days later, get all of your 1099s together. A few days later, add the receipts you’ve subsequently found to the first stack you created. Taking little steps is not much more fun than slamming it out at one time, but it is a heck of a lot less frustrating and stressful.

If you anticipate getting a refund from the government, go ahead and prepare your taxes as early as possible. While many people are ecstatic to receive a refund, they fail to realize they are giving the government an interest free loan. If you’re refund is sizeable, you should take a look at adjusting the number of deductions or size of your quarterly estimated tax payments to forgo having the government hold your money for months on end. Doing so will also help your cash flow from month to month.

Once you begin preparing your tax returns, it is time to start thinking about math. The biggest error made by taxpayers on returns is math. Double-check your addition and subtraction figures. Many times you’ll find you made a small mistake, which actually results in the payment of excessive tax. The IRS, of course, isn’t going to let you know such a mistake was made, so you have to do it yourself.

Finally, the best advice I can give you is not to panic. Contrary to popular opinion, taxes are not the end of the world. If you don’t have money to pay them, the IRS will not throw you in jail. Instead, they will put you on a payment plan until you do have enough money to pay them. That’s as bad as it gets, so don’t let the tax man get you down.

Richard A. Chapo is with BusinessTaxRecovery.com - providing information on tax and taxes. Visit us to read more tax articles and our new tax credits page.

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