Originally Published by The TaxLetter Vol. 26, No. 3, March 2008   www.adviceforinvestors.com

Questions, Questions Is your tax preparer asking enough of them? Are you?  Eileen Reppenhagen

People love a list of questions. A question often holds a clue as to what the answer should be, or at least how it should be answered. If the question starts with why, what, when, where, who or how, that’s a clue you should never ignore. Rudyard Kipling even wrote a poem about those words, calling them his six serving men. My mantra in college and during my indenture as a CGA student was that in every question, the answer lurked. Where is this leading, you ask? It’s tax time. What would be some great questions to ask your tax preparer this year to make sure that you’re paying the least amount of tax? But first, what questions should they be asking you? If they are not asking you any questions at all, do you want to even be there? With all these “drop your taxes on us” shops that set up in the mall at tax time, how can you protect yourself? If your tax preparer does not know you from Adam, how can they possibly report on your activities sufficiently so that a few months from now you’re not answering a tax auditor’s questions? For the sake of an “instant” refund, is it your best option to . . . Signup for The TaxLetter and read Eileen's full article every month

Eileen Reppenhagen, CGA, ACG, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor writes and speaks about accounting and tax.  She is a regular contributor to Canadian MoneySaver, The TaxLetter and Intuit’s award winning online publications for accountants and QuickBooks ProAdvisors, ProConnection Newsletter and Advisor Advantage.   All articles are copyright protected.  Most articles are not available for re-print unless you obtain permission from third parties.  Please respect copyright. For more information or permission to re-print please contact  eileen@taxdetective.ca If you obtain permisison to re-print an article, include this tagline:   "Eileen Reppenhagen, CGA is a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and speaks and writes about accounting and tax.  Contact her at www.taxdetective.ca".