Should tax advice here be limited to ';Professionals';?

I am amazed about all the BAD advice I have seen on here for preparing taxes, etc.


I know this is a community forum and everyone should have their say, but some people give advice that doesn't even exist!


Maybe we should just keep things as they are for a good laugh.


I just wouldn't want to see someone screw up their taxes from bad advice.Should tax advice here be limited to ';Professionals';?
Well, anyone who asks a question in an open forum like this should take what is written with a grain of salt and not believe everything that is written here.





As a tax professional, sometimes I have to shake my head reading some of the responses here. If someone has already responded to a question, I will generally not reply unless the previous responses are either incorrect, or I have some additional information to add. My particular area of expertise is international and expatriate tax, but I will readily admit that there are areas of tax where I am not very familiar with and would need to pull out my copy of the Master Tax Guide or look at the IRS website to look up the answer. In my company, we don't get clients that regularly file for the earned income credit (they wouldn't be able to afford our fees), nor do I run across a lot of estates or trust clients (they are typically handled by another specialty group).





So even if the answer is given by a professional, they may not necessarily get it right. You have to keep in mind that tax law is an extremely wide area and not every professional will be an expert in every single aspect of tax law. Also, because the tax code is written in such legalese, a lot of times it can come down to interpretation of the law. They have said that if you ask a tax question of several different tax professionals, including the IRS, you can get just as many different answers.Should tax advice here be limited to ';Professionals';?
I totally agree. For example, people keep saying that a married person can file as single on their return. They can't. (SOURCE: IRS)





I have also answered so many questions like ';I made $24,000 - how much is my refund.'; Sometimes they don't even make sense!





If people don't know what they are talking about, they should shut up. People should think about their questions before they ask them.
Well.. this is an open forum. when people ask questions - they should be ready to receive all kinds of answers. There are people out there that will ridicule and mock any question asked out here - no matter how grave or serious the situation.





It is up to one to filter out the answers and take the best course of advice. Also another thing that helps is the source of the answers - as that is an indication as to how serious a reply is.





Cheers!
I think that's the risk you take when you ask your question on a forum like this.
The problem is that many answers are given by kids who have never paid taxes or people who have done it wrong for years and have never been caught. It is just buyer beware with answers here. There is no way to restrict it or we would have to require only doctors to answer medical problems or accountants to answer math problems.





BTW: I have always claimed my cat as a dependent and receive the earned income credit. ;-)
No. I understand your concern, but it's up to the asker to decide for themself if they want to look into it further. We don't need more regulations; we can all make our own decisions.





Learn from your mistakes.
No, but people should take the initiative to double check advice they recieve here.