"but I cannot believe that question was even asked"

People stand around the campfire and share their tax advice. Most of it is wrong. A lot of it is no longer true, but used to be true.

A lot of it is people thinking their entire personal life is a tax write off.

And there are preparers that will fudge the data like that. It's hard for an honest preparer to convince manipulated clients that something in their name was filed incorrectly, putting them at risk.

Remember: the worst person in class still graduated with the ability to be your doctor, lawyer, or tax preparer. Oh, wait: Preparing taxes for a living is now a DIY job path. Intuit told us this.