My experience with CPAs has been poor. "I dunno, just put what you think is right" is how the last person I paid told me to handle a mismatch between my wife's actually grant payments and her 1098-T.
1098-T forms are notoriously unreliable. Schools will often misclassify or omit scholarships and payments. And you might have additional educational expenses like books that aren't listed in the first place. It doesn't excuse your experience, though; that tax preparer should have made a better effort to understand the figures.
Out of curiosity, was the tax preparer actually a licensed CPA, or just someone with no professional credentials? If they were a CPA, did they prepare individual tax returns regularly or only as a side job?
> 1098-T forms are notoriously unreliable. Schools will often misclassify or omit scholarships and payments. And you might have additional educational expenses like books that aren't listed in the first place.
Worse, virtually all of the 1098-T guidance exists for undergrads. The problems with the form are entirely different for graduate students and basically nobody can help.
> Out of curiosity, was the tax preparer actually a licensed CPA, or just someone with no professional credentials? If they were a CPA, did they prepare individual tax returns regularly or only as a side job?
It's been a bunch of years so I don't know for certain, but they weren't just a desk worker at H&R Block. Tax preparation was their primary job.
In my experience, somebody who has tax preparation as a primary job is often not a CPA. A CPA usually offers a suite of services, and is also usually a lot more useful.
My CPA is great, and I save money through using his services.
Gotcha. Still worth noting that going to somebody whose sign says "tax preparer" often isn't the same thing as "accountant", and one conflates at their peril!
I mean, I agree. Especially in the US. I was forced to hire a CPA because of some complicated international stuff. Until then I filed it myself. I have used TaxAct and Credit Karma taxes (which is now Cash app tax). TaxAct is cheap and fully functional. Credit Karma was also straightforward, easy to use and accurate.
CPA can also be useful beyond just tax filing. My CPA does a half year evaluation to see if I'd owe any additional tax and plan accordingly. They also makes sure I get all the deductions I can.
