H & R Block - Tax Preparer made a mistake on my 2010 Tax Returns

Posted by trmn8r on 2012-04-15:

You are responsible when the preparer makes a mistake, otherwise I don't think any preparers would be in business. They would have to have insurance that covered the losses, and then the insurance company would go out of business.

You owe the taxes, since you had the income. What you risk losing is any penalties.

Posted by raven2010 on 2012-04-15:

The tax preparer CAN be held liable for any penalty and interest you owe due to their mistake. You would be responsible for any tax due.

That said, you have to prove the preparers mistake was reckless or knowingly made the error. Most of this stuff comes down to simple human error.

Even if you give a tax preparer a POA to sign for you, always, always, always review the return carefully before it is submitted.

Posted by trmn8r on 2012-04-15:

I do my own taxes, so I don't know how it works. I would assume that as raven said the taxpayer would review it, and be able to catch an error like "married/joint return" when it should be "single".

Posted by Nohandle on 2012-04-15:

TRM is correct. I sign a form each year with my CPA verifying I have reviewed my returns and they are accurate. I am also given a form from the CPA with the now standard disclosure that the returns are based on the information provided them. The firm I use is very competent and quite frankly I think they all require this now.

What I think here is total incompetence. Do they have no one to verify the numbers punched in? Or the filing status? I personally could complete almost anyone's tax returns but since I don’t do my own, why would I attempt to do someone elses? We receive a number of complaints about H&R Block. Some will state they are cheap. No they are not. And I would not trust them to represent me if my return was audited.

Thanks for the reminder.

Posted by madconsumer on 2012-04-15:

this does not surprise me. i knew a guy who worked for h&r block, and he would make up deductions for clients. he also stated they would find every reason to NOT defend their clients in front of the irs.

hopefully you are able to get this corrected.

very helpful review.

Posted by oldisgood on 2012-04-15:

I used a tax preparer one year and was audited and had to pay more. Now I use Turbo Tax and have absolutely no problems and I have not received any letters from the IRS. Turbo Tax is great. I have dividends, interest and have sold stock and mutual funds. It walks you right through. This year I Have Merrill Lynch as my broker and by just choosing the Merrill Lynch option all my financial info was put into TT and in the right places. I had nothing to do except check it over, which, of course I did. I did not trust that it was accurate, but it was. And the best part is that TT only costs less than $60 which is a lot cheaper than HR Block for Jackson-Hewitt.

Posted by trmn8r on 2012-04-15:

That's funny, oldisgood. My mom's accountant royally messed up one year, and she asked herself "why am I paying an incompetant boob?" I helped mom through an IRS meeting to dipute *their* version of corrections needed, and ultimately took over my mom's taxes. The accountant had made some really stupid mistakes. It depends how complicated your individual situation is, as to whether you need a really good accountant to find creative ways to avoid taxes.