John M. Hoffman & Associates CPAs

Errors and Omissions (from client 2007 tax data submissions)

Keep in mind we don’t claim perfection but we strive for progress…..in order of frequency and significance: 

1. Listing as medical insurance premiums paid amounts paid pre-tax through payroll deduction at place of employment. This is the way of preference to pay for your health insurance premiums but please don’t confuse us by listing it again – no double dipping allowed!

2. Blank and incomplete information regarding in kind charitable giving. We need the following:

•         Name, street address, town, state and zip for receiving organization.

•         Date(s) of donation

•         Description of item(s) donated

•         Your cost of items (obviously this is usually an estimate)

•        The VALUE of the item donated (no used underwear and no $100 shoes).

Blank receipts will be valued as zero and not added to your return. We do not determine or make up the values. 

3. Childcare information – even if paid for through dependent care benefits at your place of work we still need the name, address, taxpayer id#, and amount paid for each provider.

4. Auto excise tax payments – while it is not significant a $100 auto excise tax is a $25 tax savings for most clients. Hoffman picks up pennies in parking lots, how can you expect him to let you allow $25 to blow away in the breeze?

5. Round Number Disease:

The chance that 2 out of 2 numbers are multiples of 100 is one in 10,000. The chance that 3 of 3 numbers are multiples of 100 is one in 1,000,000. Yes we understand that people often write checks to charities in multiples of 100 or that total miles for a year are often some sort of a rounded estimate, but we don’t understand how taxpayers can think that deductions for things like business telephone, business travel, prescription medications, etc. should all be multiples of 100. We contacted a rocket scientist who confirmed that these cases may give the appearances of “guesstimates”, or “I don’t have a clue”, or might indicate that documentation or receipts are out of the question. 

We suggest to taxpayers that if their numbers are aligning with the stars this perfectly that they should hurry to buy a lottery ticket because their chances of winning are greater than the chances that the numbers they are giving us are accurate (and the IRS is not totally stupid).