my wife and didnt have time to wait for her w-2's but my w-2 came first. i was a full time student at the time. however i have been doing business with them for about 6-7 years before i got married. when i went in to file my taxes in january. well she said that she was going to list me head of household and put my step-daughter and my son on the taxes as well.she said that my wife would file hers as married separately. i trusted that what she was doing was correct. low and behold, when i went registrar for college in the fall of 2012. i had to turn in me and my wifes tax returns. well our taxes were filed wrong and i paid these people to do my taxes. the college i applied to had caught this mistake. so i paid $100 to amend hers and i got mine redone. because THEIR mistake, i owe $4200!!!! the funny thing is when i confronted her about this she told me that she had done this to 3 other customers!!! and laughed about it!!! i need an attorney or a lawyer ASAP. HERE IS A TIP: A MARRIED COUPLE WITH BOTH SPOUSES WORKING HAS TO CLAIM MARRIED JOINTLY OR MARRIED SEPARATELY. IF ONE SPOUSE IS WORKING 2 JOBS OR JUST ONE JOB AND THE OTHER DOES NOT WORK ONLY THEN CAN HE OR SHE CLAIM HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD!!! donot let anyone tell you differently!!! if in doubt contact a CPA(certified public accountant) and do your taxes with a CPA only not these "tax preparer places".
Answers & Comments
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take her to small claims court and sue
unfortunately the taxes eventually owed are still your responsibility so you really can't file to reclaim them
she absolutely did you wrong by filing as head of household when you were married and living together
and claim the step daughter on your return
this is someone you used for 6 or 7 years? I wonder how many other of your tax returns were prepared incorrectly?
Unfortunately, this is all too common and why I try to steer folks on this board clear of "store front" tax prep services. They're not all like this, but many are.
If you were to sue, it's unlikely that you would recover much. You would have owed the taxes regardless of if she filed correctly or not. You may have received a refund to which you were not entitled, so you have to pay this back. The only thing that you may recover if you sued her would be her preparation fee and any penalties that the IRS charged you. The judge *may* also award you the cost to amend and interest charged by the IRS, but this is up to the judge. All in all, you probably wouldn't recover enough to pay your attorney fees.
I have to correct the statement you made in caps, however. If you are married, you can file married filing jointly or married filing separately. It doesn't matter if one spouse worked; you're married and you must file as such. The only exception is if you are separated from your spouse for the entire last six months of the tax year and have a child...in which case, the spouse that has the child can file HOH (assuming that that spouse otherwise qualifies for HOH) and the other spouse files MFS.
I love FAFSA. They catch so much fraud and before the IRS does.
A married couple that lives together all year can file MFJ or MFS, but not HOH. Your preparer inflated your refund by putting you down as HOH. When using HOH vs. MFS, you got a larger standard deduction, lower tax rates, access to EIC and the Education Credit--both of which are not allowed on an MFS return. Since your income didn't include your wife's, the EIC was probably more than what you should have gotten on an MFJ return.
Let me repeat that. By filing an illegal tax return, the preparer inflated your refund. That means *you* got the money, not the preparer. Now that you have corrected the tax return (either by amending to MFS or filing MFJ with your wife), the IRS expects YOU to pay back the inflated amount. Plus Interest. Plus Penalties. And even a ban on claiming EIC for 2 or 10 years.
As for the end of your post "IF ONE SPOUSE IS WORKING...ONLY THEN ...HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD" is blatantly wrong. If you live together and are married on 12/31, then HOH is NOT allowed.
Use IRS form 14157 to rat out the preparer for filing an false items on the return.
PS, some preparers set their greedy clients up for a $5000 penalty by adding all sorts of things to the return. You must learn to question and proofread.
Your version isn't quite right either - if a couple is married and lived together at any time after 6/30 that year, neither can claim head of household in ANY case, no matter who worked or didn't.
But if someone at one of the preparer places did your taxes wrong, and they did, go back there and talk to a supervisor. But btw you don't owe all of that money because of their mistake. Sounds like maybe you got EIC but between you made too much to qualify. If they had done it right in the first place, you wouldn't have gotten it anyway.
You have no case. You signed a fraudulent return. That makes you and the tax preparer equally guilty of tax fraud. When you conspire to break the law, you cannot then turn around and try to recover your losses from one of your co-conspirators when it blows up in your face. You'd be laughed out of court.
Your assumption that you can file as HoH (rendered in CAPS) if only one of you has income is utterly false. Make a note of whoever told you that and never take tax advice from that person again. No CPA would tell you that -- even one who does not prepare tax returns -- so please don't imply that one did.
My recommendation to you, based upon 45 years of tax prep experience: STFU and pay the IRS what you owe and pray that they don't come back and ban you from claiming the EIC for 10 years or impose the $5,000 fraud penalty.
You can't file HoH when you are married. Only if you are separated. Even if only one person has a job.
You signed the return as accurate. It's on you. You have no recourse to get the money back. The preparer is neevr legally responsible for your debt.
You should have had your taxes redone as a joint filing and you'd likely owe much less money. The perosn you went to who redid them should have told you that....
CPA's are allowed to do taxes but most are not tax experts. They take 1 or 2 tax classes whereas I took 154 hours last summer. Some CPA's have unlicensed preparers actually do the work for them and they sign it. I work for a big company and I am an enrolled agent. These "tax preparer places" are not all bad. Just like any job in any company there are always a few bad apples.
Forget suing the preparer. Chances are, a majority of the $4200 you now owe you would have owed anyhow if your taxes were prepared correctly. Most (though not all) tax preparation businesses will cover interest and penalties if they made an error in preparing your return. Since this preparer obviously made an error (and obviously is not in any way qualified to prepare even basic tax returns), ask the business to cover your interest and penalties. You are still responsible for the original taxes due.
IF ONE SPOUSE IS WORKING 2 JOBS OR JUST ONE JOB AND THE OTHER DOES NOT WORK ONLY THEN CAN HE OR SHE CLAIM HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD!!!
And your above enclosed statement is NOT CORRECT either for this purpose and time in your life.
Sure you can sue any one when you want to choose to do so BUT the outcome after that time may NOT turn out the way that you would want it to for that purpose and time in your life. Good luck to you.
Hope that you find the above enclosed information useful. 09/26/2012
Your comment in caps is wrong. A married couple can file MFJ or MFS. Neither can file HOH.