Questions for your tax preparer

Here is that time of the year when you are into deep thinking about taxes, and the right questions you must ask your tax preparer. Take out some quality time to spend with your preparer or chalk out some questions for them while sending them your return.

What kind of tax questions should you ask?

·              Retirement - if this is in the plans during the next year, your preparer can help you understand proposed changes. And don’t forget to ask about Social Security if you will start drawing it during the next year.

·              Divorce or Marriage – either can play with an expected refund.

·              Children - what effect could a new baby have on your taxes? Or, what happens when a child goes to college or starts working.

·              Starting a business – get an overview of what records you will need to keep. You can always get more info later.

·              Making a withdrawal from your 401K or IRA – if you are thinking about doing this, ask about the tax consequences. The same goes for taking a loan against your 401K.

·              Credits and deductions – ask about those credits you’ve heard about on the news. Do you qualify and why/why not?

·              Review your return – ask about items that didn’t come out the way you thought they should.

·              Are you paying a penalty - a big balance due may trigger a penalty. Should you make estimates or change your withholding?

Ask questions so that you can stay on top of your taxes. A good preparer will try telling you about issues they see but even the best ones don’t read minds. So ask questions so that the tax pros can do their job better.

No dropping off bulk returns for processing at IRS centers

With an aim to encourage tax professionals to file their clients' returns electronically, and to ease up on the workload at processing centers during peak tax season, the IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers will restrict themselves to processing a few returns, but no the dropped off returns in bulk.

Beginning this year, IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers generally will not accept bulk returns for processing and mailing, particularly when it affects taxpayer services. The IRS hopes to eliminate the practice of taxpayer representatives dropping off completed returns for processing, especially during peak operating periods.

The intent of this policy change is not to limit assistance to taxpayers or their authorized representatives.  Nor is it intended to limit taxpayer representatives’ visits to support their clients, particularly in situations where the taxpayer is facing financial harm or undue hardship, such as delinquent returns or to start or stop an installment agreement. It is designed, primarily, to stop the practice of dropping off returns solely for processing and mailing when the returns can be mailed directly to the IRS processing center. The TACs will accept returns with imminent statute implications, with remittances or other situations where it's in the best interest of the taxpayer and the Service to accept them.

Local TAC managers have the authority to make exceptions to this policy and will accept drop off returns if, in their opinion, tax preparation and other customer account services are not impacted.

The IRS encourages all tax preparers to take advantage of available e-file options to file returns electronically to avoid the need to have returns accepted and mailed at the local Taxpayer Assistance Center. 

Source:www.irs.gov