Well, it is that time of year when everyone is inundated with commercials from the various tax preparation services. Being unregulated, these guys make all kinds of claims without every having to explain or back them up.
My favorite this year is the “if you are audited, we will represent you” claim. What they don’t say is that they are going to charge a fee for this (about $40 last I checked). If I had charged my client’s such a fee last year, I would have brought in a lot of additional revenue and would have had to provide the service exactly one time. So what they guys are doing is playing the audit lottery and, once again, taking advantage of people.
Whether it is refund loans, exorbitant fees for simple returns, or the mere fact that the person preparing your return has had about six weeks of training, I still find it amazing that anyone continues to use these services.