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I taught Junior High School students at El Rancho Charter School in Anaheim Hills, CA from September, 1999 – June, 2004. Although I loved teaching and oftentimes miss being in the classroom, one of the motivating reasons for me leaving was because of the following story.
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In 2002 Brandy, my wife, and I were both teaching.
Up until 2002, I had always prepared my own taxes. However, in 2001 Brandy and I had just bought our first home, and we wanted to make sure that we were doing things correctly, so we decided to go to someone to prepare our returns. Being the teacher that I was, I worked on our return the night before in order to compare how well I did when we met with the preparer the next day. I guess I was hoping he would give me a good grade!
The next day when we had our one and only appointment, I was shocked to discover that he came up with a smaller refund than I did on my own the night before. He had me getting a smaller refund by a couple hundred dollars! Add in the fact that I had to pay for his services, and you may imagine that I was just a little frustrated. So, again like a good teacher, I had to gracefully and tactfully show him his mistakes and together we got the same refund I came up with the night before. Unfortunately, I was still out the money I had to pay him.
To say that I was frustrated would be an understatement.
Brandy and I felt like we were being rushed throughout the appointment, the preparer missed many deductions that I was able to find on my own, and I was going to pay him to get a lesser refund than I got on my own.
To further add to my frustration, when I asked him about what we could do to lower our taxes for the future, he pretty much said we were doing all we could. I knew this couldn’t be true!
This is when I began to realize that there is a need for teachers to receive quality tax preparation services from someone who understands their unique profession – somebody who has been in their shoes.
This was one of several events that started my journey in getting the information, knowledge, and training I needed to minimize my income taxes. Little did I know at the time this experience would also one day help my future clients.
It has become somewhat of a mission of mine to find all the deductions and credits that I can for teachers and all of my clients.
If you have ever felt the same way as Brandy and I did back in 2002, please feel free to email me and share your story. I guarantee you are not alone!
If you’d like to see if you are getting all the deductions to which you are entitled, and would like to lower your income tax liability, please feel free to contact me anytime.
