It has been a while since I have written a blog, but something has come to my attention that has really gotten under my skin. Using self-serving business practices. This is not a good idea and I am strongly against it. I have now seen a practice in my profession offer free tax return preparation to someone less fortunate provided that they prepare five other tax returns by paying individuals. Making a donation by playing on people’s heart strings to boost your own sales is wrong. Remove the caveat and maybe limit the number of freebies if that is an issue and move on! The optics just don’t look good.

I purposely limit the number of personal tax returns that I prepare and this type of business practice doesn’t directly affect me. There are free tax preparation options available for those that qualify through tax clinics and tax preparation software. Large national practices are even preparing free personal tax returns for front-line workers. However, self-serving happens in other industries as well. Make the donation, post about it and be done with it, no strings attached!

Everyone’s situation is different and I understand people are hurting right now due to these crazy times. Not everyone qualifies for government benefits and sometimes these benefits are not enough. It is great to see that people are making efforts to help others in need. I have a client that has shifted to making face shields to protect front-line workers. There is a local restaurant that has been providing meals to essential workers. These are the efforts I can get behind.

We will get through this!

Stay safe everyone!

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