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by fourply 5550 days ago
as a tax attorney and someone with 4 years experience as a volunteer at an IRS VITA site, i am not sure that i'm entirely comfortable with the idea - but maybe i am missing something.

first of all, there are preparer regulations that require - well, lots of things. this system could run afoul of those quickly and easily.

secondly, the interview process is crucial for me. it can be driven by a form, but it's extremely important to talk with folks about what happened during the taxable year to identify not only potential pitfalls and ensure that everything gets the right treatment, but also to talk about planning opportunities that can save them big $$$ down the road.

for people that are foolish enough to go to H & R Block anyway, maybe this would be a valuable thing - but it's not a cookie-cutter process and treating it as such can result in serious fines and/or jail time for taxpayers and preparers.

my thoughts: make sure you find yourself a tax law badass to make sure you're doing things right. it will be complicated, and costly - but if you don't get it right out of the gate it's not even worth doing.
2 comments
billpaetzke 5550 days ago
Could you expand on or quickly summarize why going to H&R Block is foolish?

(I don't use them. Just curious).

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fourply 5550 days ago
They hire folks with no education or experience, train them for a week, and turn them loose - generally paying $9/hr plus a percentage of fees they generate. The majority of their business comes from taking advantage of poor people - they prepare a return that takes me 6-9 minutes, offer a 'refund anticipation loan' that gets people instant gratification, and charge them $200-$400. Eff everything about that. I am thrilled to see the RAL on the way out and look for VITA sites to become much more heavily utilized soon!
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SriniK 5550 days ago
fourply, let me invite you to the site as tax professional and then see if our background check is good enough.

Value proposition for tax professional is: We are connecting you to your customer. That's it. You can choose to have a call or interview or messaging to get to the final return.

Value proposition to customers is: Whole process of sending tax documents, messaging and paying fee is simplified.

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