Because identity theft receives much publicity during the tax season (due to increased levels of actual theft), we posted on Feb. 3, Feb. 10 & Feb. 17 as to how to reduce your risk and steps to take if you suspect that your identity has been stolen.<\/p>\n
You have likely heard the news reports of identity theft problems that TurboTax had with its state tax returns. Below we have inserted three links of reports that discuss whether Intuit (the company that makes TurboTax) deliberately ignored tax preparation security precautions to achieve greater sales revenues.<\/p>\n
Here is the link to one of the blog posts that broke open the story:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/krebsonsecurity.com\/tag\/intuit\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This link has more of an analytical critique of the identity theft measures that Intuit abandoned:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/us\/turbotax-refund-fraud,news-20490.html<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And for full disclosure, here is a link to Intuit\u2019s denial:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20150223006617\/en#.VOyeGi6h-PU<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Intuit\u2019s TurboTax and the major tax preparation firms (H &R Block, Jackson Hewitt, & Liberty Tax) do lots of marketing that focus on getting the largest refunds and paying little to have a tax return prepared<\/strong>. Their marketing does not focus on their tax expertise and value they can offer the taxpayer<\/strong>. If you use a national tax preparation firm, you should\u00a0interview the tax preparer who will be preparing your return. You would likely discover that the preparer received two weeks of training before the tax season, and a good portion of that time was spent on how to input information into the tax return software program. Thus, in many cases, the person whose return is being prepared may know more about taxes than the preparer.<\/p>\n If you were to return after April 15 to the office where you had your return prepared by a national firm, you may find that the office is only open a limited number of hours during the week, is closed, or you will need to travel to another location for assistance.<\/p>\n Taxes are one of the major expenses Americans face today. Before using just any tax preparer, including attorneys and CPAs who prepare tax returns but lack a tax background, you owe it to yourself to \u201cvett\u201d your tax preparer to ensure that he\/she is an experienced tax professional. It is obvious that the IRS’s overview of the tax preparation industry is not without its problems. By way of example, you should read our Dec. 16, 2014 posting about unscrupulous tax preparers.<\/p>\n To learn more about your personal income tax situation, we invite you to call 610-594-2601<\/a> today to make an appointment at our Exton PA CPA office<\/a> to discuss your situation with an experienced tax professional. You can also schedule a consultation at Click Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Because identity theft receives much publicity during the tax season (due to increased levels of actual theft), we posted on Feb. 3, Feb. 10 & Feb. 17 as to how to reduce your risk and steps to take if you suspect that your identity has been stolen. You have likely heard the news reports of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-irs-tax-planning-ideas-tips-news","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W9tf-pl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1578,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Copyright \u00a9 2015 Keystone Financial Solutions, P.C. All rights reserved. BE SURE TO READ THE DISCLAIMER PAGE: Content in this blog is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as the rendering of tax, legal or investment advice. The publisher of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information herein, will not be liable for any errors or omissions, and shall not assume liability for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"