Last night I spent some time on the phone with one of my favorite tax specialists, my dad. He’s got lots of experience in accounting, finances and way too many other things. “Why?,” you ask yourself. Thanks for asking, it makes it easier for me to answer. The reason for my call was the fact that the tax software I bought to use for my 2004 tax return pointed to what appeared to be the wrong line in my previous year’s return filing papers. What’s really weird is that I think that there’s an error. So, I’ve got to contact the (hopefully) nice people at H & R Block and raise some Cain so that I can get an answer. The issue is that the software says to look at line 56 in one place, line 55 in another [referring to the same information] and the wording is ambiguous as to what information they’re definitely looking for. I’m pretty sure they want line 55 since line 56 is self employment tax and they ask for it on the next page of their ‘interview.’

I know as a software developer myself that there’s a fine line between testing your software and doing quality control. I know that I’ve been responsible for a bug or a whole pack of bugs, however, I don’t think that my bugs had any legal ramifications. If I screw up my tax return I could be liable for those mistakes, not H & R Block. So, word to the wise: just because tax software is easy, doesn’t mean it’s right, double check the software.