The CPA says he will charge me $400 to do my taxes. What do you think?
Monday, October 26th, 2009 at
11:20 pm
He says this is the average price for doing taxes and compared it to a form I brought with me from another CPA.
This is for interest earned on CD and Mutual Funds.
Tagged with: average price • CPA • mutual funds
Filed under: CPA
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If it is just a 1040 with a Sch. B (from your information) that is at least $300 to high.
Want some advice…CPA’s aren’t always tax professionals. In fact in most cases they are not tax professionals. A CPA is basically a certified accountant that does audits that produce certified financial statements for corporations. Simply meaning that they take a sample of the companies transactions and confirm them according to a set of rules.
Now, to be fair…I know several CPA’s that specialize in taxation that are very good. I am an Enrolled Agent…and have had a great career fixing some CPA’s and lawyers mistakes on tax returns.
My point is that no matter what the letters are after the name you need to find someone that specializes in what you need and is willing to do it at a reasonable price.
Oh, another tidbit…in most cases if you go to a CPA firm…the CPA will not be the person doing your taxes anyway. If you don’t believe me start watching the classified ads in your local paper next year in late October and November. Or go to the library and review the past years.
ask your friends if they have used a tax preparation service like H&R Block Get the name of the person who did their taxes and that they liked. Most preparers at these services are good but you would be better off with a person who has been doing it for several years.
I know because I work at an H&R Block office.
CPA usually charge twice as much as tax prepartion services.
Did you sell any mutual funds? Are these IRAs. Did you take out any money early? Do you have children? Do you own a home or condo?
If the answer to most of these is "no" then you could do them yourself using online software.
I agree with Russ B. Only about 10% of CPA’s actual do taxes. I had a CPA to taught accountng in college who hadn’t done his own taxes in 30 years. Didn’t have a clue how to either. I am a professional tax preparer that has worked for the same CPA for over ten years. Russ B is correct. I do the bulk of the work on the returns. I gather the information that is needed to complete a return, communicate with the client over any questions and they are only charged $50 per hour for my time as compared to $125 of her time. But she does review each and every single one as her name is the one that gets signed on it. I tell my clients, the more time that I work on it, the more money it saves then. $400 is a little high unless there were stock sales or some sort of company.
That sounds like a lot if the interest is the most complex item you have. If you have your own business, or have a lot of stock sales, it might not be out of line.
file online free http://www.taxbin.com/