Check them anyway! Honestly you couldn't buy a cup of coffee with .50 & what DH and I know about taxes.. The last two years we had H&R Block do our tax returns. Due to a couple of VERY bad financial years, we have had to pay ..and pay BIG. Anyway, last year they charged us over $300 to file, so my FIL's accountant offered to do them for about 1/3. We make monthly payments to the IRS and we were looking forward to filing this year because we knew we would be getting money back (finally!!). Of course whatever we get back does directly to the IRS, but we were really hoping to have a nice big payment on our balance.. So DH goes one night this past week..yes we are getting money back...only but only $760 I wasn't sure how much, but hoped for much more (again I know nothing about taxes). The paperwork comes in the mail yesterday from the accountant and DH looks over it....He finds a small discrepancy..The guy never added ME! Just had my DH as filing single with our 2 kids! So DH calls the office to question it..yup it was an error on his part.."Does it affect our refund?" we ask? Yup..just a little bit...we are now getting.. $4900 back !!!! I am so excited I cannot even tell you!
Congratulations on the refund! You are so right. ANYBODY can do a simple, yet very effective, check to catch many errors on their return: Simply compare it to last year's return. Granted, situations will change and can change drastically. But, in general, if you compare each line to the prior year you can spot any big changes. You, or your accountant, should be able to explain the reason behind those changes to your satisfaction before you ever file your return.
