Cooperbotax

Donald Trump, Anderson Cooper top nationwide Web poll on whom we'd like to prepare our tax returns

BY Sarah R. Kaufman and Bill Hutchinson
Daily News Writers

Wednesday, April 15th 2009, 4:00 AM

What do Donald Trump and CNN newsman Anderson Cooper have in common? They're the celebrities Americans feel most comfortable doing their taxes.

In a nationwide survey by WalletPop.com, The Donald edged out The Coop, 32% to 27%, as the most trusted tax preparer.

"I'm very surprised. I thought for sure Jon Stewart would win," the Web site's editor, Beth Pinsker Gladstone, said of Comedy Central's "Daily Show" host.

With the tax filing deadline ticking down to midnight tonight, the results of the survey were released to add some levity to the laborious annual obligation.

Gladstone said 41,451 people responded to the online poll, which ended Tuesday on the AOL personal and consumer finance site.

"People get caught up in taxes and like for a way to express themselves. It's more than just a joke," Gladstone said of the survey. "It's kind of a collective catharsis."

The poll showed 50% of respondents were feeling more stressed out this tax season because of the economic crisis. Only 5% planned to splurge with their refund, while 31% planned to pay bills.

Although Trump and Cooper formed an unlikely turbotax duo, hotel heiress Paris Hilton was voted the worst person to prepare a tax return.

Even those who didn't take part in the poll agreed.

"I don't think Paris Hilton knows the first thing about taxes," said architect Megan Fullagar, 26, of Harlem. "She's probably never had to do it in her life."

Fullagar said Trump doesn't seem like a tax genius, either. "He just has a really great accountant," she said.

Carlos Torres, 47, a dockworker from Brooklyn, said if he could pick, his celebrity tax preparer would be "30 Rock" star Tina Fey.

"If I have to pay, at least she would make me laugh about it," said Torres, who was mailing his completed tax forms to the IRS Tuesday.

Brooklyn engineer Mike Lawson, 37, said the most surprising result in the survey was that most people would rather give up sex than TV to avoid paying taxes this year.

"I would never give up sex," Lawson said. "I'm still young enough to have it, and it's something I like to do. If I had to pay a ridiculous amount of money, like $10,000, it might be worth giving it up."

Other results of the poll include:

- Randy Newman's song "Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)" best sums up the tax season experience.

- President Obama's tax returns are the ones people would most like to see.

- Racecar driver and "Dancing With the Stars" winner Helio Castroneves, charged in October with using off-shore accounts to evade $5 million in income taxes, was singled out as having gotten the worst tax-truancy rap.

- And Google was voted the best design-friendly company to redo confusing tax forms.