It's time for the playoffs in major league baseball, which means Cleveland Indians players will be watching the games on TV with the rest of us. Hope springs eternal, however, and if we look ahead to next year, we can picture the team picking up a hitter or two. If the new slugger starts off the season going just 2 for 19 at the plate, his batting average would be an anemic .105, Greater Cleveland would groan.Yet, that's the batting average the Government Accountability Office found when it brought in 19 tax preparers to test how accurately they filled out returns. Two of the 19 filled the returns out properly, the GAO said.
And as you know, when you put your signature on your return and mail it off to the IRS, it's you the taxpayer who is on the hook for any mistakes included in the return, not the tax preparer. Those errors can sometimes be painful.
For example, there was a retired teacher whose tax preparer made an error on her return. Instead of typing in $39,000 in income, the preparer typed in $39. The teacher clearly didn't do a cursory examination of the return before signing it and mailing it in. Much to her surprise, the IRS later sent her a letter saying she owed nearly $9,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties.
These kinds of errors are common, as the GAO has discovered. The difficulties the taxpayer experiences can be uncommonly painful, however.
Of course, when business returns contain errors, in some cases the mistakes can be difficult to unravel and remedy. An experienced Cleveland tax attorney can assess your situation and help you favorably reconcile matters with the IRS and bring you or your business into compliance.
