Every tax season I prepare taxes for a nation-wide company which I will not name. Our tax laws are a catastrophe. Here is an example.
A woman with three kids comes in. She is not married to the father, who lives with them, on purpose, for tax reasons. She worked part-time last year and madek $10,200. $38 was deduced from her check for federal taxes.
After Earned Income Credit, Child Tax credits and two other credits, she got a check from the feds for well over $4000. She paid us over $300 out of her refund to get her refund done and to get it back in three to five days.
I got three percent of the fees (about ten dollars on top of my salary). I believ her refund was $4300 after the over $300 she paid us -- and all of it was money given to her by the feds, so she lost not one cent out of her pocket to have her taxes done.
Everyone who comes to the office does this. If the feds didnt' pour thousands of dollars into their open hands all these tax places and many private accountants would go out of business.