What should I do if I don’t understand the tax return terminology?

    Published: 06-16-2009
    Views: 10,975
    Tax Director Art Auerbach discusses what to do if you don’t understand the tax return terminology.

    Host: What should I do if I don't understand the tax return terminology?

    Aurthur Auerbach: If you don't understand tax return terminology there are a couple of places that you can go to get help. There is, I referenced in the introduction, there are some programs on the web, there is a website called www.el.com. If you then put in e-linkstaxes you will get everything on the web dealing with taxes. One of the items that's going to come up on their site is something called a glossary. So that's a tax glossary and that basically is the question that was just asked.

    How do I get this? So if you put in the word, it's alphabetical, you just go to that word, you will get an explanation in tax language what that word really means. If you want some help, you can also go to the Internal Revenues Website. Now when you get to IRS's website, on the left hand side there is something that says Forms and Publications. If you click on that, in the middle of the screen the first item that's going to come up are forms, the next one are publications. The most important one here is the one called Topical index. If you click on Topical index you will get the letters of the alphabet, you take the word that you want to explain, you click on that word, you will not only get the IRS Publication that explains it, you will get your definition explained, but you will also get a reference to the tax form that is supposed to go on.

    So all of the items are there, they are all available on the web and of course, the last one most state CPA societies here in Virginia, the district of Columbia, Maryland, New York all of them have volunteer tax professionals who are available and you can either submit your question electronically or by phone and get a response.