I Still Haven't Gotten Good Enough at
Preparing Taxes To Do Them By Mind-Reading.
Volume 12, Number 14
Issue 562
As the closing days of this tax season arrive, I find myself saying more and more “if you don’t know, I don’t know.” Old-line clients smile at this remark because they have heard it before and understand why I say it. New ones need it explained to them.
I say this “one-liner” in response to inadequate and non-responsive answers that clients--mostly new ones--often give to my substantive and objective questions about facts and figures that I need the answers to in order to prepare a proper and correct tax return. 95% of the time the non-responsiveness is innocent and is just part of the process. Sometimes, though, it is the sign of unwillingness or something even worse.
Evasive and non-responsive client “I don’t knows” are sometimes to given my questions about stock cost basis, stock options, refinancing situations, mileage and business records, charitable contributions and personal property taxes. Some of the more difficult “I don’t knows” are often told to me when people ask me to “get them an extension.” When I respond that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay and advise that extensions must be supported by the payment of any balances due, I often contend with the “I don’t knows.”
“I don’t knows” hinder my success. It is part of my job to make every single “I don’t know” turn into a specific and objective answer that ultimately makes it into a line on a tax return. Every single “I don’t know” is an item that keeps me a step away from issuing a completed return ready for signature.
As a professional that serves the public, I am constantly amazed about how the general population thinks that professionals magically have all the answers that they are searching for and can give answers even when they are not given basic facts. Regretfully, some of the worst client “hard feelings” that I’ve ever made came from me simply asking questions. If I ask them at too detailed a level, I am “coming on too strong.” If I ask them at too elementary a level, I am called “condescending.”
Sometimes I think people mask their own insecurity by searching out professionals while being purposefully unarmed with basic facts to discuss. Then, the professional fails because they (the customer) can’t get basic questions answered (such as cost basis, financial records, business history) and then blame is shifted to the professional. The professional takes the fall for the client’s failures.
If the taxpayer doesn’t know, I’m not going to know. If I ask what charitable contributions were and you tell me that you don’t know, I can’t make something up. Any CPA that does is not doing their job. If you don’t know your cost basis for a stock sale, I’m not making it up for you! If you don’t know how much depreciation you have taken over the years on rental property that you have sold, I’m not going to know. Old-line clients know not to put me in these situations. Most new clients will know for future years. Some clients, though, are purposeful in their “I don’t knows.” These are the ones that set me up for failure. It’s these clients that are a CPA’s nightmare.
If you come to me with an aggressive attitude that is based on an “I don’t know and I don’t care” attitude that is at all belligerent and uncooperative or hostile, we will not have fun and we will both have a horrible experience unless I have the courage to send you on your way at the first opportunity that I can, which I will. I do, in extreme situations, ask hostile clients to leave. Every professional should.
We can have the best and most pleasant tax preparation experience of your life, or we can have a bad one. You will find that I am unlike any other CPA around. My great friend Dave DeBaugh of Praxis Partners in Richmond says that I “flunked the personality part of the CPA exam.” I’ll bend over backwards to actually make the process fun and enthusiastic. I will make sure that we work together towards the goal of you paying the lowest legal tax. You’ll make mistakes and I might even make one once in a while, too, but we will get through it together as a team. That’s the ONLY approach I’ll tolerate. To do all this, though, you have to be prepared to be your own advocate while giving respect at the same time that you receive it.
This 2004 “busy season” is my twentieth preparing tax returns including fifteen as proprietor and principal of my own firm. Though I think (and about 1,100 clients, too, I believe (as well as 14,300 or so voters in Chesterfield County who elected me as one of their seventeen elected officials)) I’m pretty good at what I do, there is one skill that I am still a rank amateur at: obtaining answers to complicated questions by mind-reading.
There is still time. Come to me to get your taxes done. My staff and I will work very hard to make it the most pleasing tax preparation experience of your life.
David B. Robinson, CPA
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