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The 2018 Tax Season: Experts Weight in on the Biggest Horror Stories (So Far)

by
Lee Reams II
on
7/11/2019
The 2018 Tax Season: Experts Weight in on the Biggest Horror Stories (So Far)

The 2018 tax season has (for the most part) finally come and gone, which means we're all collectively getting a better picture of what changes happened in the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. There are some out there who said that this would be the biggest benefit to taxpayers to come along in a generation, while others predicted little more than doom and gloom. So what ended up happening, specifically?

All of this and more.

When asked to share their horror stories from the 2018 tax season, the responses of our experts ran the gamut of potential problems. Some stories stem from recent changes to the tax law itself, while others have to do with clients trying to game the system. One thing is for certain: all of them are nothing if not fascinating.

The Horrors of Tax Season: 2018 in Review

Speaking to the latter category, Allen Lenth of Executive Tax Solutions said, "I had a day-trader who put himself through software programming school so that he could get a 'real job' as an IT salesman. He wanted to deduct tens of thousands of dollars in expenses involving a school that 'officially' was not related in any way to his business." Lenth continued, saying that "when he wanted me to log into his day trading software to figure out all of his Schedule D earnings because he had no 1099s for me to record, that was the last straw for me. I can't say we departed friends, but we did depart from doing business together."

Bradley Smith of Bradley Smith, Inc. had a similar story, although not necessarily with intentions as bad as the previous one. "I had one client with two companies this year where the bookkeeper paid the bills from the wrong checking accounts for about three months. Each company paid the other's bills!"

Luckily, both of those companies were owned by the same person or else that bookkeeper would have needed to make some fairly awkward phone calls.

The Ripple Effect of Tax Reform

Many of the other stories dealt with the general understanding of the new tax laws, or the decided lack thereof. Gerri Lazarre of TriMerge Tax said that "the biggest challenge for most taxpayers this season was centered around understanding how the new tax law changes impacted them, the benefits, the new guidelines and tax increases (or decreases) as a result of tax reform."

She continued, "The horror is mainly attributed to the lack of education on how the new rules impacted and changed taxpayers individually." Indeed, most people knew there would be changes — they just didn't realize how far-reaching those changes would actually be.

Joshua Standley, EA, ABA of DKK Accounting said that "this season we had a small business owner owe $100,000 in taxes — a significant amount, to be sure. They didn't save or plan for taxes throughout the year and their stress level exponentially increased as a result."

"A client of mine sold his rental property in the summer of 2018 and at the same time, I recommended that we have a tax planning session to prepare because of the new tax laws. Unfortunately, this client didn't want that. When tax time came around, he found out that he owed over $20,000 in federal and state taxes combined — ouch!" said Joshua Waller of JW Accounting & Tax Advisory, LLC.

It Takes Two to Tango

Indeed, a lack of knowledge about the impact of tax reform is certainly a running theme throughout many of these stories and one that can be attributed to both sides of the equation equally. Elizabeth P. Davies, CPA of Taxes Untangled said that "the biggest horror story is the fact that so many preparers failed to discuss with their clients the changes that were coming down the line and how it was going to impact them, specifically."

She said that "I was having these discussions when I was preparing for the 2017 returns since we could see then what the impact was going to be. Far too many preparers are just that — 'preparers', and NOT professionals looking out for their clients' best interests."

Katherine M. Bennett, CPA said that these types of stories have unhappy outcomes for everyone involved - including the tax professionals themselves. "Telling people that they owe money to the government is always a tough one," she said. "The worst was telling people that had employee business expenses that they weren't allowed to use them. Employers are just not adjusting salaries to make up for this and it's hurting those employees' bottom lines."

She finished by saying that she "had to give a lot of bad news this year, unfortunately." Here's hoping that this is one trend that manages to reverse course in the not-too-distant future.

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Lee Reams II

Lee Reams II

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