I think it's kind of rude of you to make that assumption about people who receive EIC. It's not like you go into the welfare office for it; if you qualify and file your taxes correctly you just get it. And honestly, you'd be stupid to turn it down.

Most enlisted Soldiers with children qualify, btw. I don't know about Officers since I haven't looked at the Officer pay chart, but I'm guessing your son probably qualified for EIC this year as well since only base pay is taxed.

We have ALWAYS received EIC. And we have ALWAYS paid our bills. Income tax filing and otherwise.

My MIL is an accountant so her accounting office does our taxes.

The cutoff for the EIC for a married couple with two kids is just under the $40K mark, so there are a lot of working class families who qualify. I know you didn't mean to, KFC, but I have to concur with Tex on the stereotype; poor doesn't always mean "deadbeat".

That's the good thing about RAL's, though. They may cost a tad more on our end but we walk out knowing the preparer's bill is paid.

I'm sorry if I offended you TW, I didn't mean to offend anyone. But, regardless, it is something we DO see happen. Granted, not all, EIC's stiff their accountant. In fact, only a small number seem to be a problem. If I implied that, I'm sorry. We do see a pattern tho of those that get the most help usually are the least likely to pay regardless of what it is. I agree "poor" doesn't always mean deadbeat Gid. Certainly. But we have yet to see what others may deem "wealthy" stiff us or leave us hanging.

I see this in a church setting also. Those that come in to the Pastor for whatever reason, lost their job, ran out of oil, couldn't meet their mortgage payment this month, etc. are the LEAST likely (usually unlikely) to help us day to day. It's not even debated. I don't know how many people we've helped out, that up and leave us later without so much of a thank you. Some are very grateful, but not at the point where they are willing to help out in non-financial ways in the day to day operations of church life. It's certainly not going to make us stop helping those in need. It's just a pattern that we are familiar with.

On the other hand we have some that are hurting financially, but they never ask for a dime. They continue to work and be active in the church setting wtihout ever asking. We do for them too, by giving out, periodically , gas and food cards. We buy up like $500 worth of cards and pass them out here and there as needed and they usually go to those that least expect it but we know it's a great picker-upper for them.

Believe me, we were very poor for a long time when my kids were little. But we always paid our bills. I felt that if I used the service, I was responsible to pay for it. The first year we went into business we made 8K that year. We had three little boys and no money for Christmas. I remember the church we were attending at the time gave us $500 for Christmas. That seemed like a ton of money to us back then. Many years later, when the business was going strong, we made a donation to that same church we were now not attending and paid them back. It wasn't expected but we remembered and were very grateful for that help in our lean years. So I've been there as well.

So if you are using the EIC and paying for your service, bravo! But we do find, that if we had two tax returns in our hands one that is EIC and one that isn't, our bet would be the one that isn't will either be very slow paying or no pay. That's just the way it is.

Most enlisted Soldiers with children qualify, btw. I don't know about Officers since I haven't looked at the Officer pay chart, but I'm guessing your son probably qualified for EIC this year as well since only base pay is taxed.

if that's the case then that's sad. Because I know for a fact my son is doing quite well financially. He has a house that is brand new, all paid for. If they so much as need a light bulb, it's taken care of. All his bills are paid off and he's looking into investing. He has more toys than we have now. Yes, base pay is probably considered low but when you look at all the perks and housing and utilities all paid for, you don't need that much base pay. Even his taxes are done for free. Medical? Yup that's all taken care of too. I tell them they have no idea that usually newlyweds have some struggle. They're not there.

KFC: Thank you for clarifying. The cut-off for EIC is not extremely low (definitely not poverty level) so many decent, honest, working families qualify for it.



I'm not saying that your son isn't financially successful. The way the tax system works, though, he DOES (or should) qualify for EIC (unless I'm waaay off on his rank and years in service).

What I'm getting at is, as Gideon said, not just "poor deadbeats" get EIC. Whether EIC should exist at all is another topic completely, but it's not all that hard to qualify for when you have children.

PS - My husand is enlisted and considering his non-taxable allowances, medical insurance premiums we aren't paying, the commissary discount (locally, it's about 20%), and an average-sized electricity bill that we are not required to pay, along with his base pay, he makes about $75K (we do live in a high cost of living area, though).

I'm NOT complaining about military pay. I'm just trying (maybe unsuccessfully) to illustrate my point, which is: not just "poor deadbeats" receive EIC. Decent, hardworking, promptly-paying people get it too.

With Turbo Tax, (and no offense), why should someone come to you?  I am just curious.  I used a CPA once, and then studied what he did, and did my own after that.  Saved me $375 for the next 3 years we had that rental property.

With Turbo Tax, (and no offense), why should someone come to you? I am just curious.

There's nothing really wrong with Turbo Tax, but I'd suggest every few years you hire a CPA to do your taxes especially if you have any significant changes or just to make sure things are right. It's a good thing to go in with questions that you may have like investments, IRA's, inheritance questions you may have, etc.

Turbo Tax can't sit down and ask you questions across the desk like a CPA can. For instance, you build a relationship with your clients. They come in (or some just drop off) and usually questions are asked like, "your child is a senior this year? What are you doing for college plans?" Do you know about the FASFA form? Do y ou know when it needs to be filed? .........so I drove by your house and saw you selling cornstalks out front......did you know that you have to claim that for income? Yes, but do you know that if you claim the income that you can deduct the seeds, dirt, manure and other stuff you bought to make those stalks......and did you know that probably when all is done, you'll be taking a loss.....and be better off?

We've had people come in that have been doing turbo tax but still have questions they need answered. We also have had people do turbo tax and miss deductions they could have had. But I do think Turbo Tax from what little I know about it is pretty thorough.

If you're just cut and dry and the same old stuff every year, you're probably fine. Like you said, you just kind of go by what has already been done. But many of our clients when they come in have questions about other things like tax planning, investments etc. Like one person sold some land this year. She wanted to know how that was going to effect her for next year's taxes. We suggested for her to make a big tax payment at the end of this year as an estimated tax. That way she's got her income and expense in the same year. Otherwise she would be putting that expense on next year's return but that doesn't help her income this year. She needs that deduction.

Saved me $375 for the next 3 years we had that rental property

You're talking only service fees right? You must have to pay for the Turbo Tax Program every year right? Are you dedducting that? What's that? Half what you'd pay an accountant every year? Well say you spend $50 for the program. Say you pay $100 for tax prep. It would be worth the extra $50 or $60 to have a tax guy you trust every year to do this for you. You might have to spend a couple of hours yourself when it would only take a CPA an hour or so to do it. Time is money.

Sometimes people think they are saving money by doing their own taxes when they don't realize they've actually lost money that an accountant could get for them by applying tax law the client would have no idea was available. Remember these tax laws change yearly. It's hard to keep up with them. We've seen that alot. Sometimes we go back a year or two and do ammended tax returns to get them extra money they missed.

In our office when someone new comes in, we ask for their last year's return. That way we can check to see roughly if they took the deductions they had coming to them. Some do fine, some don't.

I agree, totally! But then when it comes to my money, I like to keep it myself. My taxes are not over complicated, and perhaps a CPA could get me a few extra bucks. But I have been using TT for 16 years now, and it has already paid for itself many times over. I have nothing against CPAs when you have some really complicated stuff. But the vast majority of us are one step away from a 1040ez. So why pay them for it? Well, I also admit that I am not the normal filer as I am an economist that does have some Accounting training. Still, when it comes to my money (as in not the government's) I hate paying someone to keep what is mine in the first place.

And yes, I do deduct the cost of the software. Not far off on the price BTW. I think you can download a free copy (just not file with it). You might want to check it out.

And I promise not to advise others to not seek your advice! I am not that good.

I skipped Turbo Tax for one reason: Political campaign expenditures. Nice to have some insurance (someone who has your back) by paying the money to have it done. Just my opinion.

Actually that's a good point I didn't bring up Gid. The IRS has alot of respect for the CPA signatory at the bottom of the page. While I don't have any stats to back me up, it's our belief that there's less chance of an audit with this backing. If all is equal, they are more than much likely to go after the one without the CPA tag at the bottom.

Almost all of the time it's the IRS that makes the mistakes, not the CPA's. Sometimes when there's a question we need an answer to we can call three times and get three diff answers. Everytime there's a discrepancy between us and the IRS in our office, they are the ones that have to back down.

Barring shysters, can we say "All the time"?

I would.

Here's another reason to use a CPA.....

we had a young couple who had bought a new house a year or so ago. My husband knew the loan was for 165K at 6% interest from doing their taxes last year. As he was doing their taxes, he noticed the math wasn't right. The mortgage interest statement wasn't high enough. He's now wondering if they refinanced, so he's going to call them to find out before he continues. Otherwise the bank may have made an error on the amount.

Now if they had gone to H & R Block, this potential mistake wouldn't have been picked up. They just take the paperwork and insert the numbers.

We also had a guy from church sit down and go over his Turbo Tax Numbers with my husband. They were wrong and it all had to be erased and done over. I guess his numbers were not put where they should have been inserted. I'm guessing that's why he came in the first place. Maybe he wasn't sure of himself.

Barring shysters, can we say "All the time"?

Pretty much.