When someone comes to me for income tax preparation my job is to make sure that they obtain a basic understanding of the numbers on their income tax return. If they receive a refund my job is to help them understand why they are receiving a refund and to encourage them to continue doing a good job. If they owe then my job is to help them understand why they owe and to immediately help implement a plan to place them in a better situation for the next tax season. It’s important to analyze and compare the current year income tax return with the prior year income tax return which helps us identify positive or negative trends that is the difference between an individual receiving a refund or owing an income tax liability