The person who does your taxes will have access to a wide range of important and valuable information about you, from your income to your Social Security number to your investments. You want to make sure you hire someone you trust to take care of all that valuable information. When hiring someone to do your taxes, there are specific qualities you should look for.

#1 Ask About Credentials

When you hire a tax preparation service, make sure you are working with someone who has undergone training in order to accurately prepare your taxes. There are multiple types of certification you can look for. You can hire a certified public accountant, who earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and gathered thousands of hours of supervision and training under another CPA before they were able to earn a CPA certification. You can hire a licensed attorney who works in the financial industry. You can also hire an enrollment agent, who has a certification from the IRS's Annual Filing Season program. You want to make sure you hire someone who has credentials and training in tax law.

#2 Ask About A PTIN

Anyone who prepares taxes must have a PTIN, which stands for Preparer Tax Identification Number. Anyone who is getting paid to help with taxes must have a PTIN. Any legitimate tax prepare will be happy to share their PTIN with you; they have to put their PTIN on your tax return so that the IRS knows someone assisted you with your taxes and was paid for it.

#3 Ask About Professional Enrollment

Next, find out if the tax preparer you are interested in working with is enrolled in any professional organization. Some professional organizations they may be enrolled in include:

This is just a short list of some professional organizations a tax professional could be a part of. All the above three professional organizations require their members to meet specific certification requirements and to uphold specific professional codes of conduct and ethics. The fact that an individual or company is enrolled in a professional organization shows you that they have a higher code of ethics and conduct that they hold themselves to.

You are trusting the individual who prepares your taxes with a lot of valuable information, so you want to make sure the individual or company you hire has the right training and experience to safeguard your information and correctly fill out your taxes. Contact a company like Hough & Co CPA to learn more.

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