Year: 2012

Did you make the mistake of going to a national tax preparation firm in 2009, 2010, or 2011?  Our experience tells us that you might want us to review that return.  We don’t keep any accurate statistics on this matter, but roughly speaking, those returns that we review are wrong about 20% of the time.  How can this be?  Well that is a long story that requires some understanding of how those places operate.  Nevertheless, you might have a 20% chance of hitting the lottery by bringing that return to us to review.  We might find that you paid too much tax in one or all of those years.  If you did, you have until at least 4/15/2013 to amend those returns to get some of that tax back.

Common areas where they err:  college credits, self-employment income and deductions, health insurance deductions, daycare credits, farm income, clergy income, S-Corp tax returns, capital-loss carryforwards, Indiana 529 credits…the list goes on and on.

We don’t charge to review your return…why not give it a shot?

Congress and the President decided to cut the Social Security tax that workers pay by 2% in 2011 and 2012.  The law originally was designed to last for 2011, but at the end of 2011, Congress decided to extend it for 2012.  Will Congress decide to extend it for 2013…I am guessing that they won’t.  How much will this law change cost you?  The math is fairly easy…but here is a calculator that will help you more accurately calculate the impact to you:

http://www.kiplingers.com/tools/Social_Security_payroll_tax_increase_calculator/index.php

I hear this question everyday.  What will Congress do?  Will tax rates rise?  Of course, I don’t know the answer, but my past experience tells me that Congress will do something before it comes time to file your tax return.

See, the situation that we are hearing about in the news isn’t new.  Congress has gotten in the bad habit of passing laws that are effective for one year only.  That means that the taxpayers don’t know the laws that apply to the year until the year is about over.  Of course, this doesn’t make sense in any logical sense.  How can you plan when you dont know the rules that you are playing by?

Why does Congress pass laws that are effective for only one year…and then often pass them at the end of the year in which they are effective?  Many insiders think they do this so that they can get lobbying attention each and every year.  Why pass a law that lasts forever and lose power over that issue when you can have domain over that issue each and every year.

I am not going to prognosticate on what Congress will do.  But I will venture to guess that this isn’t the last year that Congress will wait until the last minute to make up their mind on the tax law until the end of the year.  I have seen this consistently happen for at least the last 8 years…I bet that it will continue to happen.