What they don't tell you about being a tax preparer

Photo: John Morgan

I have always done my own taxes. Since the day I was required to file I have been doing it. A couple years ago I decided I wanted to make a go at being a paid preparer. In the state of Oregon that means doing an 80 hour course and passing a 100+ question test, which wasn't too bad. 

I passed the exam no problem, and I got a job at a tax office that was right around the corner from our house.  I was super excited! It took a few weeks before they got busy enough that I could get some hours because the government shutdown late the year before had made the start of tax season get pushed back a week or two.

I spent a day training with one of the senior preparers, watched him complete some returns and basically find my way around the program we use to do taxes. In class to get your license everything is done on paper, but everything is done on various tax software for professionals of course, so there is a learning curve to doing returns on the computer. 

The biggest and most shocking thing about being a tax preparer that never really occurred to me was just how much your tax man learns about his clients! You learn so much, much more that you really wanna know about people. Sure we learn how much all of our clients make a year, but you know when clients have kids, buy and sell homes, start and close businesses, divorce situations, custody issues. People just spill it all, and the thing is as a tax professional we need to know a lot of these things to successfully prepare a return! When you are learning in tax class, its all hypotheticals and not real people and it never crossed my mind I would have to learn so many details of peoples lives.

Here are some of the many things we learn about doing taxes.

Your marital status, Single, married, divorced, legal separations

Deaths of spouses, children, parents, grandparents 

How many children you have and who they live with

How much their day care costs, who the care provider is, where they go to school (college)

How much you pay for college tuition, books, student loans

If you lost your job, how many jobs you've had and where you work

If you file bankruptcy how much money was owed on credit cards, foreclosed homes and medical bills

How much you spend on medical, what medicines you take, what doctors you see

If you own a home, how much its worth, how much you pay in interest and taxes

If you had health insurance, who your provider is

Custody issues with children of separated or divorced parents

Family drama with the handling of trusts and estates tax returns, how much and who is inheriting from said trusts and estates

Who pays child support and alimony and how much

Who collects alimony and child support and how much

How successful your business endeavors are

How successful your investment endeavors are

how much money you put in your retirement accounts, what the balances are.

If you or someone in your family is disabled. 

How much money you make

The list goes on and on. 

Its really frightening just how much info your paid tax professional has on you. 

Sometimes I just want to tell the client, whoa! TMI buddy, did not need to know that about you. Most of the time I can get the info I need without the overshare but often bringing up the situations at hand get the client going down that road and they will spill it all! Its nuts! I just wanna do your taxes buddy, I don't want to know your messed up family history!

I don't mean to scare potential clients into doing their own taxes, or potential future tax preparers into choosing another profession, because I really love what I do for a living. But its pretty eye opening and was a shock to me, so I thought I would share.