Come find us on Thumbtack! We help clients with tax preparation and accounting in Miami and all around South Florida. Whether your an individual who needs tax preparation services in Miami or a business owner who needs payroll, tax preparation, or bookkeeping services in Miami, we are here to help! We offer a free consultation to help you make your decision!
Bookkeeping
Archives
Category Archive for: "Bookkeeping Services"Watch out for Income Tax Scams this Tax Season
Friday was officially the first day of tax season, and unfortunately, scammers are already looking for their next victim. The IRS is warning all taxpayers to be cautious and keep their personal information protected throughout this tax season. According to the IRS, the biggest threat for tax fraud this year is identity theft.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses your social security number or other identifying information, without your knowledge, to commit crimes in your name. During tax season, the most common fraud occurs when an individual steals someone’s identity, and then falsely files a return in their name, to claim their refund.
This year, the IRS has issued some tips to help protect individual taxpayers from falling victim to Identity Theft:
1. Don’t talk to any individuals over the phone who claim to be with the IRS. The IRS will never contact a taxpayer over the phone. If someone does call you claiming to be with the IRS, they are probably a scammer trying to get personal information out of you. Never give any information over the phone.
2. Do not answer any e-mails from anyone claiming to be with the IRS, or open any attachments that are sent with those e-mails. Just like with the phone situation, the IRS will never contact anyone via e-mail. This type of scam is known as phishing, and scammers will use this to lure people into providing private information. If you do receive an e-mail in this manner, the IRS recommends that you forward the e-mail to phishing@irs.gov. This will help the IRS to catch the individuals involved in the fraud.
3. Be cautious of notices sent from the IRS at the beginning of the tax season. Many times individuals will try to defraud taxpayers at the beginning of the tax season, so they can file a fraudulent return in their name before the taxpayers even realize. The IRS advises to make sure a tax notice is legitimate before responding to it. One way to do this is to go to a tax preparation specialist with the notice. They can help you determine if it is a legitimate notice, as well as the proper action to take upon determination.
Following these tips should help you to avoid any possible tax scams for this tax season and keep your identity safe. However, if you believe that you are a victim of identity fraud or know of any suspicious tax activities, you should contact the IRS right away. The IRS provides forms on their website that you can fill out and file to help them remedy the situation right away.
At Max Tax Agency we help individuals who have been victims of identity theft. Our tax professionals take all the steps necessary to improve their tax record, file a correct return, and take all the necessary precautions to ensure the taxpayer never has to deal with identity theft again!
Hiring a Tax Preparer
How do you decide between preparing your own taxes and paying someone to do it for you? Well many times if your return is simple enough it makes sense to prepare it yourself. However the tax law is very complicated and many deductions are often overlooked so it often is a good idea to have an expert look into it. Finding the right tax preparer is very important. Once you find a good tax preparer you will use them for life!
Why go to a tax preparer? The National Society of Accountants listed 10 good reasons why.
10. It takes the hassle out of doing it yourself.
9. You don’t have to keep up with the many tax law changes or understand complicated tax law.
8. Making mistakes can be very costly.
7. Your time is worth money – add up the hours you would spend doing it yourself and calculate what that’s worth.
6. A tax program in a box cannot represent you in an audit.
5. A tax professional can answer your questions to help you make smarter tax-saving decisions.
4. A tax professional can help you plan all year and for future years.
3. A tax professional can recommend ways to save on taxes
2. It gives you peace of mind knowing that a professional is taking care of it.
And the number-one reason you should hire a tax preparer is:
1. It can save you money – if your tax preparer finds even one significant deduction or tax credit you may have missed, it can easily exceed the average $246 fee it costs to have a professional prepare your return.
However finding the right tax preparer can be tricky at times. With all the tax scamming going on today there are things you should look for when choosing a tax preparer to file your taxes:
1. Are they offering to prepare your taxes with your last paystub?
• If they use your last paystub often times some of the numbers differ from the numbers on your W-2 which could cause your refund to be delayed for weeks and an amendment may need to be filed. A professional tax preparer will explain this to you.
2. Are they accessible?
• Make sure you can contact them even after the end of tax season. Some preparers disappear offseason so if you need to retrieve any tax forms from them you will be in a difficult situation. Make sure your tax preparer is available for help, questions, and to retrieve information from year round.
3. Do they sign your return and show their credentials?
• Every tax preparer should have a Preparer Tax Identification Number issued by the IRS. Every prepared return should include it with the tax preparers information.
4. Do they promote how much of a tax refund they can get you per child?
• If the tax preparer has promotional material with promises of a dollar amount per child chances are they do a lot of Earned Income Credit Scamming and they are not a professional tax preparation company. It is illegal to advertise like that according to the IRS. They try and lure customers in with promising thousands of dollars and often times claim false deductions without the customer knowing which later will often result in an audit.
Hiring a tax professional is important because the tax law is very complicated and you do not want to overlook deductions and strategies to save money on your taxes, but just make sure you hire the right one!