Does Tax Time Make You Nervous
By DW Davis
@DWDavis (25812)
Pikeville, North Carolina
March 19, 2017 9:58am CST
My first task this morning was working to finish up my taxes for this year. I would have finished, too, but we are still missing one document. Now we will have to wait and contact someone about getting a replacement.
I worked in public accounting for eight years and would estimate I prepared over 700 individual, partnership, and corporate tax returns during those years, not including my own. After I left accounting for teaching I was still preparing mine, and an additional 3 or 4 for family members.
I still do my own taxes. I use a well-known tax prep software as I have come to find it reliable and easy to use over the years. Still, I double and triple check everything that goes on my return. Then the missus goes over it. When we're both satisfied it is as correct as we can possibly make it, we will file, and not before.
My experiences with the IRS and state departments of revenue are behind my caution. Especially the IRS, as they operate outside normal law and, unless forced to, do not afford taxpayers the traditional Constitutional protections other law enforcement agencies must.
Do you get nervous about filing your taxes? Have you ever been audited?
11 people like this
15 responses
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Mar 17
Any honest person has no need to be nervous. Never audited. Did my own taxes (state/federal) for many years - until I got married and the tax situation changed so we left it to the pros and have been doing it that way for 17 years.
2 people like this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
I have to disagree about any honest person not needing to be nervous. The US Tax Code fills volumes and contains so much obfuscatory language, miniscule exceptions, and obscure rules that one can be as honest as one likes and still, inadvertently, do something that violates the code. The Tax Code and Laws of the US have been deliberately written such that the IRS can always find something the taxpayer did wrong if they want to.
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Mar 17
@DWDavis Well, I never did anything wrong nor was I nervous all the years I did my own. The IRS has much bigger fish to fry than me.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
@AbbyGreenhill Being a small fish does reduce your chances of being audited. I'm quite happy to be a small fish.
@moffittjc (118316)
• Gainesville, Florida
19 Mar 17
I file my own taxes through an online tax-preparation software, and I am not usually nervous when I submit, because I am honest with everything. If I ever get audited now, and they find something wrong, it will be because it's an honest mistake, not because I tried to cheat the system.
But that has not always been the case with me. When I was in college, I tried to cheat the system, and I got caught. I was audited by the IRS, and ended up owing a boatload of money, both in taxes owed, and in interest and penalties. However, I was very fortunate that I got an actual decent human being from the IRS who was fair and compassionate. When I met with her during my audit, I admitted my guilt, and told her I would do whatever necessary to right the wrong. She knew I was in school, and also knew I was working two jobs to pay my way through college. She asked me how much I thought I could afford to pay back out of each paycheck, and we worked out a payment plan. She was very fair and cordial throughout the entire ordeal.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
I am glad you had a positive experience with the IRS. I have met some agents who are like the one you met. I've met some who believed being an IRS agent gave them unlimited power and liked making threats to brow beat clients into giving in, even when the agent was wrong and knew it. I enjoyed helping clients beat those kind of agents.
The best agent I ever met was while working on a sizable estate return. He went through it with us line by line and let us know the best way to set things up so his boss would accept it. My boss and I figured that in the end, he'd helped us save our client nearly 1/4 of a million in taxes, all legit. I have a feeling he probably didn't last long at the IRS but is probably in a very successful private practice now.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118316)
• Gainesville, Florida
19 Mar 17
@DWDavis Wow, that is amazing that you got an IRS agent that actually helped you! In the case of the agent that I had, her attitude was, we're going to get our money regardless, so we might as well make it as painless as possible for the client.
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
19 Mar 17
No I've never been nervous. I use tax prep software too, and I've never been audited. I certainly hope I never am.. I don't keep good enough records!
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
19 Mar 17
@DWDavis Yeah, nothing really fancy with our taxes..
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111068)
• El Paso, Texas
19 Mar 17
I given to believe that because I live solely on SS and am over 65 I need not file. So far I have not been audited, hopefully, since they always got lots of money from me because I've always been single, they won't come after me for an audit, it wouldn't be an easy task for me as I rarely keep receipts.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
You are probably correct. If SS is your only source of income, you are not required to file. However, with the huge sums you make here on myLot, you might want to be sure you aren't above the threshold for earnings allowable while collecting Social Security, he said, tongue very firmly planted in cheek
2 people like this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
19 Mar 17
No I do not get nervous. My returns are always so fast and simple.
But I don't blame you for double, triple checking..IRS is after all a supreme jurisdiction.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
19 Mar 17
@DWDavis Exactly DW..statism is needed.
1 person likes this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
21 Mar 17
oh yes those pariahs have tried me 12 yrs ago and i had all my documents to prove them wrong . they figured after 6 yrs. i would not have any but i keep things forever. lol
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (48865)
• United States
23 Mar 17
Nah, tax time never makes me nervous. We have a family friend who has helped us do ours for thirty years.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
Here in the US, the IRS will randomly audit people for no reason at all, other than they were randomly chosen. They don't have to have probable cause or suspicion of wrongdoing to audit you. Sometimes, even small fish get caught in their net, and they are relentless in finding errors because they don't get promoted for finding out taxpayers did their taxes correctly.
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
I've not been audited myself, but I have represented clients who were under audit, and it can be nerve wracking. Fortunately, I had all my ducks in a row and none of my clients wound up in big trouble. A few who didn't come to the firm for help until after they were selected for audit wound up paying up, but not as much as they would have without us.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
19 Mar 17
No and No. I have a CPA and he does mine yearly, I just dread IF I have to pay.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
Since our oldest aged out and we can no longer claim him, we've been paying in quarterly estimates to avoid a big bill at tax time. When our younger son reaches that point, I may have to quit work because we won't be able to afford the taxes on my salary anymore. Boy, would I hate that.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
19 Mar 17
@DWDavis last year the business did not do so well and I had so many repairs to claim, I am hoping I will not have to pay.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
19 Mar 17
Never nervous. Only irritated by the government's thievery.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25812)
• Pikeville, North Carolina
19 Mar 17
My wife and I both have withholding but because of he inane way the US tax code is written, my income gets taxed at a higher level than hers because she earns more money than I do. That's why we pay quarterly estimates, to make up the difference.
@eagletrek2 (5499)
• Kingston, New York
27 Oct 17
no but this year I will use a live person not some thing on line that use swtich and bate
it cost me last year to do my taxes on line $200. I still got back a nice some but I know i could pay less
and have some one else do all the paper work