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A recent Wall Street Journal article presented the stories of a number of professional and volunteer tax preparers who are still going strong well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond. In my seven years supporting AARP’s TaxAide program I’ve worked with dozens of volunteer preparers in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who are extremely knowledgeable and quite sharp. I would trust them with my tax return.
The article could have been greatly improved by interviewing some HumbleDollar’s tax experts, like Bill, and Dan, and Marjorie (and I apologize to those I missed).
I have purely anecdotal examples of good and bad preparers, both young and old. I was an un-credentialed tax preparer, neither a CPA nor Enrolled Agent (EA) am I. I am however a pretty darned good preparer as long as I stay in my lane. I double and triple check my work; my mistakes are few and far between. When necessary I look things up or check in with one of my CPA/EA friends. I tried to stay on top of tax law changes and engaged in formal annual continuing education (CE)
Those are things to look for in a preparer. CE is required for CPAs and EAs. Non-credentialed prepares are not. If you are using the latter, make sure they partake in the training. You can find that information here: https://irs.treasury.gov/rpo/rpo.jsf
Having said all that, sometimes letters after a name don’t mean a thing. The CPA that bought my practice has lost half the clients through careless mistakes and bad service. He happens to be 10 years my junior.
While still working, a new client came to me after his elderly CPA suffered a stroke and could no longer practice. This client was in the business of buying and selling horses. His prior 3 tax returns had been prepared by hand. There were many deprecated items, but no detail as to cost basis or dates put in service. I had the client bring in more prior returns. Still no schedule for depreciation, and no consistency from year to year. It was as if the CPA was just making things up. Also in the past 15 years had never shown a profit; a sure way to get yourself audited. I had never prepared a “horse business” return, and having no professional credentials would have been unable to represent him if he were audited. He was a nice guy but I had to get him to a preparer above my pay grade.
Bottom line; don’t worry too much about age, and do take the time to check the preparer out.
I would not use any tax preparer who doesn’t use tax software. It’s too hard to keep up with all the tax laws which are really cumbersome. Software helps point out new laws or changes. My in-laws always did their own taxes on paper and even though I told them they were missing out on hundreds of dollars on a Missouri tax deduction. They didn’t believe me. They also didn’t realize their farm qualified for the Qualified Business Income Deduction. I finally convinced them of those two mistakes. They lost out on years of the MO deduction even after amending three years of their returns.
I still use my dad’s tax preparer. He’s about 90.
wow, Rick, an honor to be included with some pretty heavy hitters in the tax category. I think my finest asset in providing tax preparation was that I was thorough. No doubt you are faster, smarter, younger and more knowledgeable than I.
One last thing, I was a good peace facilitator. My colleagues used to send the more difficult clients over to me, although there weren’t many of them.