Table of contents:
Why do you need to complete Tax Questionnaires?
A Tax Questionnaire (TQ) is essential in organizing your information and facilitating the tax preparation process. Here's why they are necessary:
Efficient organization: The TQ helps you gather and organize all the data required for your tax return. This ensures that no crucial information is overlooked or missed during the filing process. This initial data aggregation process is similar to whoever you work with, e.g. TFX, a self-filing tax program, or another professional accountant.
Client-friendly process: Our approach to aggregating information is designed with your convenience in mind. We strive to make the data-gathering process as user-friendly as possible, providing a seamless experience for our clients.
Optimal strategy, expertise, and knowledge: When you hire TFX, you are not paying for data entry The human tax preparer assigned to your case utilizes the data from the TQ to develop the most advantageous tax strategy for your situation. By understanding your unique circumstances, they can apply their expertise and in-depth knowledge of the tax code to ensure your return is prepared accurately and optimized in your favor.
Correcting errors: We review hundreds of self-prepared (e.g. Turbotax chatbot) or competitor-prepared tax returns each year. Many of them contain errors that result in missed opportunities for taxpayers. TFX has the experience and expertise to identify and rectify these mistakes, maximizing your tax benefits.
Long-term value: By delivering accurate and optimized tax returns, we aim to establish long-term relationships with our clients. Please benefit from our services year after year, confident in the value we provide.
If you don't have time to complete our Tax Questionnaire, we offer a VIP service that simplifies the process for you. Here's how it works:
You send us all the required documents for your tax return.
Our team inputs the data from your documents into the TQ on your behalf.
We provide you with the completed TQ for your review. Once you are satisfied with the accuracy and completeness of the information, you authorize us to proceed with preparing your tax return.
Our experienced professionals prepare your tax return based on the data provided in the TQ.
For this VIP service, we charge our standard billable rate per hour. The amount of time required to fill out the TQ depends on the complexity of your tax situation but typically takes around 1-2 hours. Once the TQ is prepared, the remaining tax preparation service is performed at our standard fees. By entrusting us with your documents and data entry, you can save your time and focus on other priorities while ensuring the accurate and efficient completion of your tax return.
Which questions should be answered?
We prepare your return based on your answers:
All required questions should be answered; otherwise, the system won't let you submit your TQ for a tax preparer review.
Recommended questions can be skipped, but providing more information will enable us to prepare your return better.
It is important to provide actual numbers instead of referring to attachments, as this may cause confusion and increase the likelihood of errors.
Please do not enter decimals and round every monetary figure you report to the nearest dollar (or integer value if you report in another currency).
How to save answers
The TQ auto-saves your answers. You can freely close the Internet browser and resume another day or on another computer. If the Internet goes down, you will see the error message. Thus, you always know when the changes can't be saved.
Recommended browsers
If you see the error message above, but the Internet connection is fine, try to use another browser.
We recommend using either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
Windows: we support Microsoft Edge version 79 and above.
Mac: we support Safari version 11.1 and above.
Mobile devices: we support Safari and Google Chrome - you can download them for Android or iOS.
Non-Latin characters and accent marks: Ä, Ö, É or ß
Non-Latin characters and accent marks should not appear on your U.S. tax return. The IRS automatically converts them to the closest Latin characters. To ensure accuracy, we also convert them before filing to prevent incorrect conversions by the IRS.
Missing some (or all) tax documents that should be uploaded to a TQ
If you are missing documents from your country of residence, we can still prepare your return based on the information you provide. However, please be aware that without the supporting documents, there is a higher risk of potential errors in your data.
If you have not received a U.S. tax document that you were expecting, such as a Form W2 from a previous employer, we recommend obtaining a copy of the document from the IRS website. Obtaining and including all necessary U.S. tax documents is crucial. If you report any U.S. income on your return that does not match the figures reported to the IRS (as they receive copies of the tax forms we request from you), it may trigger a manual review of your return and result in follow-up letters from the IRS.
While waiting for a tax document, you can choose to skip it and provide a comment regarding the missing document when completing your Tax Questionnaire (TQ):
Hover with the mouse over the question/file upload dialogue to make the Add comment button appear and click it.
Type your comment and click Save Extra Comment.
Note: to ensure 100% accuracy in the figures provided to the IRS, we request the necessary forms. However, we can still prepare a draft of the return and assist you in obtaining the missing document.
How to get a scanned copy of a document
We generally work with scanned copies of tax documents. If you have a physical document that needs to be uploaded to your TFX account, you can scan it using various options available. Here are four examples:
Visit an internet cafe or a copy shop like FedEx copying and printing services. They can scan your documents and save them to a USB stick at a reasonable price.
Use the built-in Notes application on your iPhone or iPad to scan documents. Refer to How to scan documents on your iPhone or iPad for instructions.
Use Google Drive on your Android phone or tablet to scan documents. Refer to Scan documents with Google Drive for instructions.
How to mail hard copies of documents to our N.Y. office
Unfortunately, this is not currently offered.
The tax year in the country where you pay taxes is not the same as in the U.S. (Jan 1 - Dec 31)
In this case, you can use our Calendar Year Income Converter. It applies to impots sur revenus in France, Einkommensteuer in Germany, Impuesto sobre la renta in Spain, etc. It also helps you to convert different currencies to USD.