[masraum]

Over the years, I've heard people mention things like "I did my taxes and I was going to have to pay X or only get back Y, but then I heard about this guy, and I went to him and now I'm getting back $$$$. You should use my guy he could get you a bunch back too."

I have a friend who recently heard this story. A friend of a friend was supposed to be getting back, or maybe paying a little bit this year (per one of the big tax programs), but then "this guy" did his taxes and said "You're going to get a $5000 refund."

I have to think that if TaxCut or TurboTax or XXXX thought that you're at X, but then a guy can put you someplace that far different, then he must be doing a lot of fudging of numbers. I've always assumed that sort of guy does a lot of "you can claim X, because it's low enough that you won't get audited whether it's true or not.

Personally, I would have a problem with that. If it's not true, I don't want to put it on my taxes even if "everybody does it" or "you won't get caught".

Is there really anyway that "a guy" can make that big a legitimate difference on your taxes and it's completely legitimate? What sort of price are you going to pay down the line if you do get audited and that sort of thing pops up? "No, I don't have receipts, but you should trust me."

I'm assuming that if you managed to fib your way to an extra $2k of refund, and the taxman eventually found it, that you'd end up having to pay $2500-3k to fix it.

What's the opinion of the brain trust?