By John Waggoner, Apr. 9, 2014, Cnbc.com
Tax preparers got the results of an audit from the
Government Accountability Office on Tuesday. Let's just say things didn't go
well.
The GAO's report cited a small undercover study of 19 paid
preparers in February, chosen randomly in states that do not regulate tax
preparers. The findings:
• Seventeen of 19 preparers made mistakes.
• Errors ranged from giving the taxpayer refunds $52 less
than due to a refund of $3,718 more than due.
• Most frequent error: not reporting tips (12 of 19
returns).
Unfortunately, the report didn't come as a surprise. The GAO
surveyed taxpayer errors from 2006 through 2009 and found that tax returns
prepared by preparers had a higher estimated percent of errors—60 percent—than
self-prepared returns—50 percent.
Read the full story: www.cnbc.com
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