Individuals and some businesses may look for the least expensive person to prepare their tax returns, rather than the most qualified. Many people assume that all tax preparers are the same or that their tax return is “not complicated enough” to warrant the cost of a professional. It should be noted that many national return preparation companies do not hire employees who have spent a lifetime learning about taxes. Instead they hire seasonal and often inexperienced employees who attend an in-house class on tax return preparation and are then offered a percentage of the fee for every return they prepare. Is this the person you would want to prepare your return? An incompetent tax preparer can improperly report items on your return or miss deductions due to their lack of professional knowledge.