Preparing For A Tax Appointment p. 2

When organizing your data, it is best to write down any important and/or confusing issues. Writing it down will help you to clearly organize the points that you want to make, and it will provide a written reference in your file for the tax preparer. Don't forget to write down any questions that you have so that we can discuss them at your appointment. Another point to remember is, it is useful to write down each number only in one place. If an item can be divided and part put in more than one place, indicate that fact where you put the number. Recording the same number in multiple places makes it more likely that errors will be made.

If you have several receipts for one kind of expense, use an adding machine with a paper tape to add up the tickets and staple the tape to the top of the stack of tickets. This provides a written record of what goes on your return and keeps the tickets in the order for future use in the event that you are audited.

It is not necessary to provide us with your actual receipts if you provide us the same information in summary or detail form. We do not have a duty to audit you. If you want to avoid writing it down, you can just give us the receipts and tickets and we can work from those. It is less confusing for us if you do not provide receipts and tickets for the same things for which you are also providing in summary form. We do not want to leave anything out, but we also do not want to count anything twice.

Penalties

Penalties are rampant in the Internal Revenue Code. We attempt to avoid penalties being applied to our clients, as well as penalties applied to us. Professional judgment is required in making many decisions that arise in the preparation of tax return as a result of penalty considerations. In the event you incur a penalty as a result of our error, it is our duty to reimburse you for that penalty. However, we are entitled to an opportunity to dispute the penalty. As long as you give us this opportunity before you pay the penalty, we will gladly reimburse you for any penalty we cause.