Tax season is about to end again for non-extended filers in 2016 and the majority of you filed and have already received your refunds or paid your bill.
Some of you were done months or weeks ago. Others just barely got your tax returns done on time because you received late documents or your CPA was seemingly in an “ignore you mode” or “dead rush mode” leaving you to chew your fingernails right up till just a few days ago, when you finally got your return. Many of you got that return and realized there was an error right away.
Often you catch that mistake at delivery because you know the key things that affect you that help you get deductions and you are keenly aware of them, whereas the CPA that you’re handing those items to may have looked at 25 returns today, 50 yesterday, and you’re just part of the blur.
So what does that mean to you?
All it means is that you have a mistake on your returns.
You likely received an apology or an excuse and a repair, but it shook your confidence in the people that you have preparing your documents. When they make a mistake on something that you think they “should know about you” the problem is often simply fatigue. After all, the national error rate for all preparers is not zero. (It's calculated annually by the different tax associations.)
Need a Second Opinion?
What should you do about it if you you’ve got that little gut feeling that you might have a mistake on your return?
Was your refund not quite what you thought it would be?
Was your tax bill a little bit larger than you thought it would be?
Do you feel like the people at the tax office you went to didn’t have good internal communications and it looked like errors were likely to happen?
All of those things simply mean one thing, get a second opinion!
Our tax offices are experts at looking at what other preparers have done and seeing obvious flaws. Sometimes in the “carry forwards” between documents or in the comparison of your 2014 to 2015 work and where those accidents or mistakes might have occurred.
In other words, what harm would a second opinion do? There are two places that we feel that you should never wait on a second opinion, and that’s with your health and with your wealth - so why not, while your tax documents still haven’t made it to the back, back file in your cabinet, grab your folder with your ’15 and ’16 returns and drop them by our office!
We will take our time and carefully go over your 2016 return to see if it looks like any mistakes have been made. We’ll look at your 2015 return and all the carry forwards and the hints that a prior year’s return can bring to a current year.
If we find any mistakes, we’ll write you a report of what they are and what you should do about it. Sometimes we find mistakes in the IRS’ favor. We’ll let you know and we won’t report it to the IRS, just to you, you’ll have to do that. We also find mistakes that are in your favor, and we can help you amend returns, or at least make you aware of the fact that you could file an amendment.
It’s second opinion season, it lasts from April 15th to June 1st. We’d love to see if we can help you.