She was in her 20′s and had never filed tax returns because she had never received a W-2. She had worked as an exotic dancer, or in less polite circles as a stripper. The year I met her, she had received 1099′s for the previous 2 years while working in Nevada as, you guessed it, a prostitute. She was clearly frightened that I would kick her out of the office as the other “tax professionals” had done.

First, I explained that the source of her income while in Nevada was legal. Second, I explained that any income she earned anywhere else while performing the same services, still needed to be reported to the IRS. The real problem that she had was not how she had earned the money, but that she really had no clue about how much she had made. Somebody along the way had told her that it was best to do everything in cash to conceal her illegal activities — and, no I don’t think it was anybody at ACORN.

Ultimately she determined income and legitimate expenses and I filed a Schedule C — using “Other Personal Services” as the code. Every year since then I have filed her taxes. Each year I tell her that she should earn her money in legal ways, and each year she tells me that she will — eventually. As a tax professional, it is not up to me to report her activities. If I knew for a fact she was harming minors or enticing them to engage in this illegal acitvity, I would report her anonymously to the local authorities.

I watched the video and watched the reports on Fix Noise when they came out orginally. I saw outrage on both sides. First, it was apparent to me, as a manager of a tax office and as a trainer of tax preparers that these people had no business being anywhere near the words “tax preparation” and that ACORN had apparently fallen down on their responsibility to ensure proper training. Second, the whole video seemed like entrapment to me and that I could see where an untrained person might fall into the trap of wanting to help a person. But it seemed outrageous that a “pimp” would bring a “prostitute” to ANY office looking for tax advice for HER.

To me, this story is LESS about corruption and MORE about education. Anybody armed with an education could have dealt with the situation honestly and accurately. I would hope that at some time in the future ACORN is able to educate their tax preparers and be able to participate in VITA.

I agree that the “pimp and pro” would probably receive a similar response, or worse, from Henry and Richard, Jackson Hewitt or Liberty.

BTW- the proper response should be “You need to go to a tax expert. (PERIOD)”. No need to add “like a CPA”. A CPA is not necessarily a tax expert.

TWTP