Articles

Rights to representation

No law requires the taxpayer to speak voluntarily to an I.R.S. employee. Section 7602 of the Internal Revenue code does authorize certain I.R.S. employees to summon proper persons to appear at a certain time and place to give material or relevant testimony under oath. The date fixed for appearance for the I.R.S. official may not be less than 10 days from the date of the summons.

If contacted by an I.R.S. employee, taxpayers should clearly state they want to consult with an EA, CPA or attorney before speaking as contemplated by the safeguards contained in seciton 7521 of the Internal Revenue code.

Problems confronting you:

I don't have a lot of money.
I want fast service.
No baloney, just the facts.
I'm doing my taxes and/or bookkeeping and I hate it!
I need someone to respond to me, like yesterday, because now I'm in way over my head.
I'm afraid of the I.R.S.
I've probably been cheating myself for years and now I can't sleep at night.
The last time I paid for tax preparation I paid too much (and felt like I'd gone through a production line).
I'm frustrated because I think I should be able to figure this stuff out, but, my God, I've got a life and I feel like I'm wasting it doing this.
I've got a small but growing business, but I won't yet commit to getting a paid, professional bookkeeper, so I have a mess to clean up. I watched the movie Dodgeball; that's how my records look.
Now that I've finally started to take care of this mess, what's going to compel me to commit to a firm, this firm? What warm/fuzzy is going to put me over the top, force my hand, put me in the office with Mark or Allen?
Why pay a tax person to do my taxes when I can use tax software for a fracton of the price?

Income Tax Preparation

Preparing your own income tax return is a really challenging and possibly risky chore which can leave more questions than answers. Although there is substantial help available from the government online, lots of hardcopy documentation and numerous income tax preparation software programs at your disposal, it remains a task that is best left to experts in all but the simplest situations. According to a study released by the US Government's General Accounting Office in 2005, most taxpayers (77% of 71 million taxpayers) believe they benefited from using a professional trained in income tax preparation.

With all this help available at your finger tips, why is income tax preparation a challenging task better left to experts? The reasons for this are pretty clear.

There is real money involved. With the exception of the mortgage payment, the income tax bill is the largest single expense for most families.
The tax laws change every year. What was true in the past is not necessarily valid in the current year. Keeping up with the changes and knowing how to apply those changes is not for the amateur. Most taxpayers have more entertaining, rewarding, and productive uses for their free time. Hiring an income tax preparation specialist is a bargain if you value your free time at more than minimum wage.
With a self-prepared return the taxpayer has no way to know for certain that the return is correct. As income tax preparation is not an exact science, the taxpayer who chooses to go it alone will never know how much money he/she left on the table or if he/she has failed to report all income and deductions correctly. We will show you potential deductions to limit your tax liability for next year. In addition, we will give you a sheet of commonly overlooked deductions to limit the following year's tax liability.
Penalties are expensive. An income tax preparation professional will protect the taxpayer from penalties by guarantying his/her work by paying any penalties assessed as a result of preparer error or omission. Additionally the paid preparer will carry Errors and Omissions Insurance in case of a large penalty assessment. The self-prepared return taxpayer is also a self-insured taxpayer. He or she must pay their own penalties.
Income tax preparation fees are deductible in the following year, meaning that a portion of the bill will find its way back into your pockets.
Taxworks checks each return three times, twice by the experienced income tax preparation professional and once by computer. Accuracy and completeness are a result of experience, training, and investment in computer software and hardware.
Taxworks' staff members have credentials with the Internal Revenue Service. If there is a problem with a return, regardless if it is caused by the preparer or the taxpayer, and it requires interface with IRS personnel, the taxpayer will not have to deal directly with IRS. Your Taxworks' specialist will represent you as part of the service.
Your tax return can be filed electronically so you will get a refund back quicker.
Our staff will show you how to adjust your payroll withholding to get more money back each week. Why give the IRS an interest free loan for up to 16 months.

In conclusion, preparing your own tax return makes less sense than do it yourself dentistry. Hiring the good folks at Taxworks, Inc. to handle your income tax preparation is a bargain waiting to happen.

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