Please recommend me a good tax person that knows gambling law...

[trangers]

Greg Olden LDO

[moondogg]

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I've never used, or even contacted these folks, so I can't make a recommendation one way or the other, but I did bookmark their site when this came up some time ago.

http://www.rbstaxes.com/

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I had a bad experience with them. I talked to them on the phone, described my situation, and agreed on a price. So I sent them all my info in. Don't hear anything for several weeks, I call them a few times and keep getting a "we haven't gotten to yours yet" answer.

Then, they call be at the beginning of April, saying that they can't prepare my return at the price quoted, because "it's a lot more complicated than we thought when we quoted the price". Basically, when I called I said I had a "handful" of mutual fund and deposit accounts, now they were saying that they didn't realize it was so many (probably 10 funds and 5 deposit accounts), so it would take them too long, so they need to charge me twice what they quoted.

First, I was upfront with them, it was indeed a "handful", and if their estimate was so dependent on exactly how many it is, they should verify this when giving the estimate.

Second, the idea that it took a lot more time to prepare was complete BS. Anyone who has done their taxes completely by hand knows that the difference between 2 and 20 mutual funds is mere minutes. They had to assume they were doing a schedule Schedule D, so at that point it's just adding entries and adding up the subtotal.

I refused to pay the double-price amount, told them to send my info and forms back immediately (it's already April at this point), and hang up. A manager calls back a few minutes later, trying to negotiate a compromise rate between what they quoted and what they tried to charge, but I refused to pay a dime more than the quote on mere principle.

So, they sent my stuff back, I got it a few days before the 15th, bought turbo tax for 1/4 of what they originally quoted me, and did it all myself in about 2 hours.

I don't know if they were trying to scam me or whether they were just stupid, and I really don't care. I just know that I will never use them, and I'll warn people every change I get.