finding a cheap
September 4, 2006 11:37 AM
tax-audit-filter: how can i find a reliable and inexpensive tax representative in the washington d.c. area, for help with a surprise audit? of course there's
the background: i just got hit with a very large bill based on a re-examination of my 2004 federal return. most of that year i was on a federal post-doc fellowship, which frustratingly resulted in all my income being reported on a 1099. at the time i had advice from the hundreds of others on the same fellowship that the self-employment tax didn't apply.
now the irs says the self-employment tax does apply, and the penalties and interest are pretty steep. i've got about 15 days to peice together an answer, and i'm pretty sure this is the sort of thing that professionals are for. thing is, the guy who prepared that years return turned out to be an incompetent asshat, and i certainly don't want him holding power of attorney in this (or any) situation.
my googling so far only reveals those helpless about.com pages, or larger corps like jackson-hewitt, h&r block, and others specializing in business tax issues. there are also some firms that seem to be preying upon those suffering from extreme tax debt. i'm suspicious of anyone that promises debt relief + re-filing for profit--it's just too good to be true. now i'm searching for some sort of list of certified tax folks in this area, but i'm not finding anything that includes reviews of services, or discussion of how much these cats charge. any help most appreciated.
the background: i just got hit with a very large bill based on a re-examination of my 2004 federal return. most of that year i was on a federal post-doc fellowship, which frustratingly resulted in all my income being reported on a 1099. at the time i had advice from the hundreds of others on the same fellowship that the self-employment tax didn't apply.
now the irs says the self-employment tax does apply, and the penalties and interest are pretty steep. i've got about 15 days to peice together an answer, and i'm pretty sure this is the sort of thing that professionals are for. thing is, the guy who prepared that years return turned out to be an incompetent asshat, and i certainly don't want him holding power of attorney in this (or any) situation.
my googling so far only reveals those helpless about.com pages, or larger corps like jackson-hewitt, h&r block, and others specializing in business tax issues. there are also some firms that seem to be preying upon those suffering from extreme tax debt. i'm suspicious of anyone that promises debt relief + re-filing for profit--it's just too good to be true. now i'm searching for some sort of list of certified tax folks in this area, but i'm not finding anything that includes reviews of services, or discussion of how much these cats charge. any help most appreciated.
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posted by garfy3 at 1:47 PM on September 4, 2006