in article barmar-504C6A.20300026032009[at]mara100-84.onlink.net, Barry
Margolin at barmar[at]alum.mit.edu wrote on 3/26/09 8:30 PM:

- quote -

companies, do write up work or audits with great skill and professionalism
but who don't know enough about tax prep to do their own returns. Likewise
with attorney's licensed to practice before the IRS by virtue of being
attorneys.

If I had to pick a tax expert blindfolded, I think I would pick one with EA
carved in his or her forehead because they don't have a lot of other
distractions. I am proud to be a CPA but those initials do not what make me
a good tax professional. That comes from 14 years of experience, lots of
training, sound advice from professional associates like all of you and the
school of hard knocks.

When I first started in business, I was at the end of a 30 year career in IT
at Procter and Gamble. I had an undergraduate degree from Penn State in
accounting and a newly minted MBA in taxation from Xavier University in
Cincinnati and I knew everything there was to know about taxes. I took H&R
Block's course in taxation that fall and it was not easy and I worked for
them for the 1995 season. By 15 April, I only knew about 90% of everything
there was to know about taxes and as the years have gone by and I have
become more experienced and taken more training, the percentage of what I
know keeps shrinking. The longer you do this the better you understand how
much there is to know and the better you realize how much gets missed by
others every day. People who do one or two returns a year with TurboTax or
Tax Cut feel like Superman driving that software and a great many of them do
not even realize it when they crash into a wall. "It must be right because
Turbotax did it".

Since I only do taxes and tax planning, I don't get all wrapped up in a lot
of other things. In fact, I have chosen to limit my license, and my
liability insurance to taxes only.

Uncompensated advice guaranteed correct or double your money back

Frank S. Duke, Jr. CPA
Cincinnati, OH USA

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <gqgt95$74p$1[at]news.motzarella.org> ,
"Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA" <gene[at]alliancetax.com> wrote:

- quote -

Isn't the concensus opinion that the pro should be a tax specialist, not
an ordinary accountant?

--
Barry Margolin, barmar[at]alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

"Juan Wei" <juanwei26[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:gqeh4l$h5p$1[at]news.motzarella.org...
- quote -

Anyone and everyone who has seen my posts knows that I favor the pro over
the DIY'er. My general premise is that when one does something all day
every day to put food on their plate and keep the lights on the chances
improve that they will do a better job than the DIY'er who does one return a
year, has no background in the industry and gets no continuing education.
With that said, there are quite a few very competent DIY'ers out there and
for the simpler returns I think they can do an adequate job with "The Box."

So I have to ask -

1 - what were the errors he made?
2 - how do you know he made them?
3 - what else can you tell us about how you found them?

Please understand, I am NOT knocking you. I am honestly curious. There are
those who hold themselves out as professionals but, as my grandfather used
to say "A Set of tools does NOT a journeyman make!" I would like to know
how your return was handled.

I've picked up clients who did nothing more than drop off a stack or papers
and get a call when the return was finished - IMNHO this is unacceptable.

I've also met with prospective clients who insisted that the prior
accountant did their returns wrong when they failed to provide all the
information.

Was there something special about your situation or did the accountant just
fall down on the job?

And please, no names or identifying info on the offending accountant. I'd
just like to hear more about the errors - if you don't mind, please.

Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

in article gqeh4l$h5p$1[at]news.motzarella.org, Juan Wei at juanwei26[at]gmail.com
wrote on 3/25/09 8:56 PM:

- quote -


Uncompensated advice guaranteed correct or double your money back

Frank S. Duke, Jr. CPA
Cincinnati, OH USA

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Juan Wei wrote:

- quote -

The "side by side" approach might work for official IRS forms, but not
necessarily worksheets. Does the OP even *have* all the relevant
worksheets from the original?

- quote -

Have you tried the most obvious and cheapest approach, which is to take
your concern to the original accountant and ask him to explain it?
Undoubtedly the accountant uses software that will produce pretty much
the same result as TTax given the same input.

-Mark Bole

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

"Juan Wei" <juanwei26[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:gqeh4l$h5p$1[at]news.motzarella.org...
- quote -

I have all my Taxcut disks going back to 2003.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Juan Wei <juanwei26[at]gmail.com> wrote in news:gqeh4l$h5p$1
[at]news.motzarella.org:

- quote -

You'll need TT 2007

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Barry Margolin has written on 3/25/2009 9:28 PM:
- quote -

I contacted them and they allowed me a free copy of TurboTax Premier 2007!

- quote -

It's worth a day's worth of data entry to save $5000. :-)

Thanks.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

In article <gqeh4l$h5p$1[at]news.motzarella.org> ,
Juan Wei <juanwei26[at]gmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

I think you would have to buy the 2007 version of the program to do
that. New versions don't automatically include previous years, AFAIK.

Once you have it, you'll then have to go through the entire process of
entering your tax data. Once it's done, you can look at the old return
and the new one side by side, looking for differences. I don't know of
any automated feature of TT to do this for you (how would it read the
accountant's version?).

--
Barry Margolin, barmar[at]alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

I had an accountant do my 2007 taxes and it appears he made several
errors. I bought TurboTax to do my own for 2008.

Is there anyway I can use TurboTax to check on what he did?

Thanks.

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >