Tax Preparation NIGHTMARE.

Allen and I usually go to H&R Block for our taxes. We had some problems with them last year that resulted in us having to wait over three months to get our tax return. We had also been told that they had gone up DRAMATICALLY in price this year and were even charging an extra $29 JUST to have the IRS direct deposit your refund in your bank account.


So because of all those reasons we decided to take our business elsewhere.


I will not name where we went because at this point they have apologized, fired the idiot that did our taxes and say they will be doing our taxes for free next year. You can rest assured though that if our taxes aren't done free next year I will be blasting their name all over the Internet. I am supposed to be receiving a letter in the mail stating we will get free tax prep, if I don't get it, I will just be blasting their names sooner!



So here's the story.



Allen called the placed, we'll call them ABC taxes. He asked to make an appt and they said "we are slow today just walk in". So that is what we did. We got there and were the only people in the place. Here's how our initial interaction went, which by the way should have sent us running the other way. We wanted to get our taxes done RIGHT THEN though because Allen had to leave out the next day and we are greedy b*tches and want our money now! LOLOL



IDIOT AT DESK: Can I help you?



Me: Yes we need our taxes done.



IDIOT: Oh well our tax preparer just went to lunch.



Me: *dumbfounded look* ugh well you guys don't do anything BUT taxes here right...so....well we called and were told just to walk in without an appt.....is there really no one here that can do taxes, I'm confused.



IDIOT: Oh no I mean, ugh I can do taxes...is it easy?



Me: ......ugh.....I don't know, that's why I come here, I don't know how to do taxes and isn't that what YOU DO HERE?



IDIOT: Oh, i mean the EZ form.



Me: I don't know, I mean we are married filing jointly and itemizing.



IDIOT: Oh I can do that no problem, I just don't know how to do it if you are self employed the other preparer will be back from lunch though in like 15 minutes.



I had an uneasy feeling but again I just wanted to get it done so we stayed.



BIG MISTAKE.



We go to the back and the idiot enters our information into the computer. She looks at my measly 1099 from my freelance job with the newspaper. Seriously it was only $600 but I knew if I DIDN'T report it, it would bite me in the butt so of course we are reporting it. She has no clue what to do with it. I tell her what it's for, she again looks lost.



sigh



She says "let me call".



This began a long process of calling some woman across town.



She hangs up and says "I am going to fax this to her so she can look at it and tell us what to do with this". She faxes the form.



STRANGE.



She continues inputting our information in the computer. I tell her that Allen gets a deduction for being a truck driver called Per Diem. It's a daily rate he gets for being over the road that is supposed to cover meals, expenses etc. Last year we got a nearly $11K deduction for it so obviously this is NOT something we can just NOT use as a deduction.



She has no idea what this is and looks at me serious as day and says "so is it a work related expense"?



SERIOUSLY?



I just looked at her like the moron she is and said "uhm yeah".



I tell her that it's in the tax book they should have. She gets up and aimlessly looks for "the book". Tells me that there is a guy that works there that comes in every day and just reads that book.....she does not know what he did with it.



WHO JUST READS THAT BOOK FOR FUN?



She again calls across town to ask what the per Diem is. The woman on the phone tells her and then explains that it's $42/day...which is WRONG. Allen gets $54/day because it's based on WHERE YOU TRAVEL TO, and NOT where you actually live. They were looking at the rate for our town and NOT for TEXAS where he goes to every week.



sigh



I explain this to the idiot and she goes on a search for her book again.



**shaking my head**



She finds the book and then says I will have to help her find the page.



I did.



She says "oh look you are right it IS $54 a day"!



REALLY?



We had other deductions for medical, mortgage interest, home owners insurances and taxes.



Now JUST the total for our mortgage interest and Allen's per Diem was nearly $18k in deductions right?



She gets to the end of the form and says:



"okay your itemized deductions equal $15K".



I put my head on the desk and say immediately "NO THAT'S WRONG".



She goes BACK and shows me that she input all the deductions.



I say "yes, i see you put that in but if you add JUST our mortgage interest and per Diem it's MORE than that", ADD IT UP".



She says "oh yeah".



Then of course she says "let me call".



I almost said "look if I wanted the person across town to do my taxes, I would have gone across town you moron".



Instead I kept reminding myself that I need to be more patient, that God is ALWAYS testing my patience so I held that in.



I also kept thinking that the tax prep person at lunch would be back any moment and that the idiot would have someone else that could take over and do it for her.



She calls the woman who starts saying that with your medical deduction the first 7% is taken off....WHICH I HAD ALREADY TOLD the idiot myself. She begins to tell me this and I say I KNOW THAT, forget the medical altogether, if you don't count that at all you're still wrong just add the per Diem and mortgage interest and you get more than $15k!!!!!!!!



She tells this to the woman on the phone whom then tells her to email her our return and she will look at it.



sigh



I am really pissed at this point.



Then she calls the woman back and asks about the 1099 from my freelance job. They argue back and forth about whether or not it was faxed. Then I say "how bout you just fax it to her again"?



She does.



A few minutes later the lady across town calls, says she fixed our return and that she just emailed the corrected version back. She also explained the 1099 to the idiot. I am thinking FINALLY we are good to go...right?



WRONG.



The idiot tries to open up the corrected tax return and because they already had an open return with Allen's social security number it would not let her open it. She gets two other people to come over and try to help her figure it out. I am STEAMING now. Allen is just shaking his head. J is wiping lollipop on Allen (yes we gave him a dumb dumb to calm him....don't hate, sometimes you get desperate) and crying because we have been there forever and it's his nap time. Thankfully we had let Makily visit with Granny or she would have been screaming too.



They tried a few things to get the corrected return to come up with NO luck. She calls the lady across town AGAIN and says she can't get it to come up. She starts writing some numbers. When she hangs up she tells us that the lady in the other office is going to print the return, fax it to her, then we can sign it, find out what we are getting back and pay them.



I ask how much in deductions the lady across town came up with when she "fixed" the return. It was $21K...which was correct and what I had come up with myself. So had I not pointed out to the idiot that she was wrong we would have missed out on $6K+ in deductions.



NICE.



They fax over the return that says we are getting back and NICE refund. In fact the most we have ever gotten. It was also what I had figured up in my head so I felt confident about what the woman across town had done.



Then the idiot drops the bomb.



She tells me that our bill for today is:



$353.00



My head flew off my body. The patience I had been so desperately trying to maintain well....it flew out of me when my head came off.



I WENT OFF.



I started yelling at her.



shameful, I know.



I said:



"ARE YOU CRAZY"???? We just sat here for over an hour, with you calling someone across town to do our taxes, you needed ME to tell you what to do, messed up on your deductions, we just sat through this circus you call tax prep and NOW YOU WANT ME TO PAY $353"!!!!!!!!


She pulls out this coupon and says she will give us $20 off.

I laughed.

In her face.

*shameful*

I said "gee thanks, that is still ridiculous when you had NO IDEA what you were doing".

To which she replied "well I wanted to make sure I got this right for you, you itemized so there are lots of forms to file and I am giving you $20 off, do you want me to call the other office and see if I can get it down another $30"?

I told her to keep her stinking $30, just finish the return, I wanted to get out of there. If I didn't need my taxes done RIGHT THEN I would just leave with all my crap.

So Allen and I paid $333 to get our taxes done by a moron and a woman in ANOTHER office 10 miles away.

HOW DO WE ALWAYS END UP IN SITUATIONS LIKE THIS?

I swear we always do.

I called the owner who I later found out was the woman across town. She apologized profusely for the idiot and told me she fired her later that day. Personally I think she should have called me and apologized herself (the owner) but maybe that's asking for a lot. We worked out that she will be sending me a letter to take in next year to get our taxes for free. I'll let you know when and if I get said letter.