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re: Taxfyle. New Tax Prep Website for CPAs. Is it legit?
Posted on 2/5/16 at 10:56 pm to Jabstep
Posted on 2/5/16 at 10:56 pm to Jabstep
quote:My first would be potential disputes with customers. It is impossible to prepare these returns profitably without making certain assumptions based on professional judgment. What happens if one, or more, of those assumptions turns out to be incorrect?
What are your concerns here poodle? Potential preparer penalties?
In general you can rely on the information provided by clients without verifying the information, but there are still due diligence requirements in cases of inconsistent information and for specific items. Are you going to just accept client claims of amounts for meals and entertainment or business use of automobiles? How much substantiating evidence will you receive from people you only interact with over the internet, which will not be original document but reproductions? Do I get paid for reasonable due diligence?
Being the conduit in the filing of fraudulent returns by scam artists.
Divorced clients having disputes over who gets to claim which children as dependents in a given tax year. Second to file with the same child claimed gets their return rejected by the IRS. Do I get compensated for the work necessary to resolve the matter?
2
Posted on 2/6/16 at 12:11 am to Poodlebrain
I have a lot of these concerns as well.
Any CPA worth anything has certain requirements before he or she accepts a new client. One of mine is, before I decide to accept a new client, I must have a live interview/discussion with them. I want to look them in the eye, I want to ask them a bunch of questions - so I make sure to know what to suggest and also make sure I'm getting everything I need to properly serve the client. Several times a year, after an initial interview (which I never charge for), I've told a potential client that I would not be a good fit for them. I can tell which ones are going to cause me more trouble than it is worth, or the ones that are BS artists.
Now, I have done some of these initial interviews via Skype, but only for out of town potential clients, and only for potential clients that have been referred to me by a current client.
I'm not trying to place more value on my work than it deserves, but for a lot of people (maybe 70 percent of individuals), tax prep is a commodity. It's easy, it's quick, and and it is cheap. My clients are in the other 30 percent. There returns are not easy, not cheap, and I am in contact with them throughout the year.
To me, and I mean no disrespect to the founder who has posted on here, but this is sort of like a CPA buying a H&R Block franchise. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I don't think this is a terrible idea, and I am sure there are some sole prac CPAs that have lots of $125 individual clients... and this might be a great thing for them.
Someone said this is like Uber for tax prep. I agree with that... but Uber is a commodity also. That's why it works so well. But tax prep isn't a commodity for everyone.
Any CPA worth anything has certain requirements before he or she accepts a new client. One of mine is, before I decide to accept a new client, I must have a live interview/discussion with them. I want to look them in the eye, I want to ask them a bunch of questions - so I make sure to know what to suggest and also make sure I'm getting everything I need to properly serve the client. Several times a year, after an initial interview (which I never charge for), I've told a potential client that I would not be a good fit for them. I can tell which ones are going to cause me more trouble than it is worth, or the ones that are BS artists.
Now, I have done some of these initial interviews via Skype, but only for out of town potential clients, and only for potential clients that have been referred to me by a current client.
I'm not trying to place more value on my work than it deserves, but for a lot of people (maybe 70 percent of individuals), tax prep is a commodity. It's easy, it's quick, and and it is cheap. My clients are in the other 30 percent. There returns are not easy, not cheap, and I am in contact with them throughout the year.
To me, and I mean no disrespect to the founder who has posted on here, but this is sort of like a CPA buying a H&R Block franchise. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I don't think this is a terrible idea, and I am sure there are some sole prac CPAs that have lots of $125 individual clients... and this might be a great thing for them.
Someone said this is like Uber for tax prep. I agree with that... but Uber is a commodity also. That's why it works so well. But tax prep isn't a commodity for everyone.
Posted on 2/6/16 at 1:41 pm to Poodlebrain
Great points. I'd be more inclined participate if I were to be the preparer and not signer of the return. Have a CPA on staff that reviews and ultimately signs the return to shield the independent contractors from liability.
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