I want to sell product x to someone, do their taxes, and cash the check myself. Anyone know how to do this?

Question

So the idea is to use the persons tax return as the method of payment.

I'm looking at TurboTax, etc.

Is this just a matter of the "buyer" signing a Power of Attorney?

I want the transaction to be complete at the filing stage. I do not want to have the "buyer" sign over the check.

Any known instruments for this?

Thank you all...

I like how this question turned into drugs.

Hahahahaha...some people are so closed minded!

Answer 1

I suppose if they put your account number down as the place to deposit their refund check, it could be done. But I don't know if there's any cross-checking of names on the account - don't think so, but am not sure. I'm also not sure if this is totally legal. As a tax preparer, I'd be real leery of this. Since you're talking about using TurboTax, I assume that you're not usually a tax preparer.

How much money is involved here? I assume you're not charging them an arm and a leg to do their return with TurboTax. Can you just trust them to pay you when they get their refund? Or is their return thousands of dollars? If so, seems like an awful lot to charge for a tax return. If you're not a professional accountant, you wouldn't be doing one that was very complex - and if you are, I doubt this whole process would be considered very ethical.

Why don't you just wait a month to sell them the item, so they could file and get their refund and then just pay you?

Answer 2

The IRS (and the states) will only make out the check to the taxpayer(s).

I think that what you are proposing is technically a violation of the law.

I know car dealerships were doing this a few years ago with the refund going to the down payment of the car but they all seemed to have stopped the practice. Whether it is because of low demand or IRS rules, I do not know.

When the big tax chains offer their "RALs" and "RACs", by federal law, the money must pass through an intermediary bank. The tax prep. firm can not receive the money directly. You can check with a bank (HSBC for example) to see if they can set up something but it will probably be cost prohibitive.

Answer 3

For tax preparers, this is also a violation of ethics to prepare tax returns on contingent fees (charge based on the refund). It opens the door to fraudulent deductions to inflate the refund. If the firm is a CPA firm licensed by the AICPA, this can result in the firm/preparer losing their license.

Answer 4

This sound very illegal to me. Sounds like you are selling dope for tax refunds.