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Show IRS Warns Taxpayers About Dishonest Return Preparers The Internal Revenue Service today offered Utah taxpayers a seven-point seven-point checklist to help them avoid unscrupulous tax return preparers. "Most tax return preparers pre-parers are competent and honest," said Roland V. Wise, District Director Direct-or of the IRS, "but some of them seek to prepare returns falsely. "The unscrupulous re- turn preparer is typically typical-ly not a tax expert," he said. "He things that certain cer-tain 'average deductions' can be taken on items such as contributions, medical expenses, or exemptions ex-emptions for clients who can't legitimately claim such deductions. "The IRS checklist will help Utah taxpayers steer clear of the unethical uneth-ical preparer," Mr. Wise said. The IRS checklist advises ad-vises taxpayers: Never sign a blank return. Don't hire a preparer who hints he has a special spe-cial relationship with the IRS or has a special tie-in tie-in with IRS computers. Don't sign a return prepared in pencil, since it could be changed later. Stay away from the preparer who presents misleading claims on the number of taxpayer-prepared returns that err in the Government's favor. Don't permit your tax refund to be mailed to the preparer. Have it sent to your home. Avoid the preparer who "guarantees" refunds, re-funds, wants a percentage percent-age of the refund, or claims to know "all the angles." Mr. Wise said, "Taxpayers "Tax-payers who have their returns filled out by someone else should seek an honest, ethical preparer. Such preparers prepar-ers perform a valuable service for both taxpayers taxpay-ers and the IRS. In addition, ad-dition, taxpayers should insist that their preparers prepar-ers sign and put their social security number or employer identification identifica-tion number on the return." |