5 Signs You've Got a Lousy Tax Preparer

Your preparer promises a big refund.
Any tax preparer who flat-out guarantees a big tax refund may be leading you on -- especially if they haven't seen your financial documents yet.
"One of the biggest scams are tax preparers who advertise they can guarantee you the biggest refund before they even look at your tax information," explains Yvette Rebella, a board member of the California Tax Education Council, a nonprofit tax organization.

One potential tactic that results from their promise of a big refund is to juggle the numbers on your tax return to generate the big payout, but that risks an IRS review and bigger problems down the road.