CPA finance accounting folks; I need your help~!

Thanks in advance for assisting.

Anybody here a tax preparer? CPA, by trade? Anyway… how much do YOU/they usually charge for their services? For tax returns.

My taxes are no longer simple (to me) anymore. I am married, I have children, and I purchased a home. I want to maximize deductions. I live in California, by the way. I used Credit Karma to file before. Thanks again.

ustijesruNR wrote: Thanks in advance for assisting.

Anybody here a tax preparer? CPA, by trade? Anyway… how much do YOU/they usually charge for their services? For tax returns.

My taxes are no longer simple (to me) anymore. I am married, I have children, and I purchased a home. I want to maximize deductions. I live in California, by the way. I used Credit Karma to file before. Thanks again.

$100 an hour ish. Dunno how it works in the US, but here childcare expense, eligible depedents, and home purchase are all capped refundable tax credits at 15%, not deductions. You're probably best off just reading about it and figuring it out yourself to save some money. The software should have places to put all of that stuff in.

ustijesruNR wrote: Thanks in advance for assisting.

Anybody here a tax preparer? CPA, by trade? Anyway… how much do YOU/they usually charge for their services? For tax returns.

My taxes are no longer simple (to me) anymore. I am married, I have children, and I purchased a home. I want to maximize deductions. I live in California, by the way. I used Credit Karma to file before. Thanks again.

Your tax is not that complicated. Turbo tax should be enough. The step by step is pretty simple. We are almost have the same scenario, the different are divorced, 1 dependent, and play stocks.
If your are owning business, that is different story.

$200.00 seems fair considering what my local CPA quoted me. Then again, it might be because I live in CA.

Prime_c wrote: CPA's can be costly especially with experience. My sister is an accountant and her firm usually charges $185 for both fed and state but they get every penny for their clients. Depending on where you are, I would just go to H&R block, I believe their rates are a bit cheaper.

I have a unique tax/bond on my home called the Mello Roos I want to creatively deduct/write off. People who quoted me are also selling me a “we represent you in case of an audit fee.” LoL

edj1000 wrote:

ustijesruNR wrote: Thanks in advance for assisting.

Anybody here a tax preparer? CPA, by trade? Anyway… how much do YOU/they usually charge for their services? For tax returns.

My taxes are no longer simple (to me) anymore. I am married, I have children, and I purchased a home. I want to maximize deductions. I live in California, by the way. I used Credit Karma to file before. Thanks again.

$100 an hour ish. Dunno how it works in the US, but here childcare expense, eligible depedents, and home purchase are all capped refundable tax credits at 15%, not deductions. You're probably best off just reading about it and figuring it out yourself to save some money. The software should have places to put all of that stuff in.

I will have to look into that. I know somebody mentioned a “cap”. Don’t quote me, but I think it’s $24,000 jointly in the US.

ustijesruNR wrote: $200.00 seems fair considering what my local CPA quoted me. Then again, it might be because I live in CA.

Prime_c wrote: CPA's can be costly especially with experience. My sister is an accountant and her firm usually charges $185 for both fed and state but they get every penny for their clients. Depending on where you are, I would just go to H&R block, I believe their rates are a bit cheaper.

I have a unique tax/bond on my home called the Mello Roos I want to creatively deduct/write off. People who quoted me are also selling me a “we represent you in case of an audit fee.” LoL

edj1000 wrote:

ustijesruNR wrote: Thanks in advance for assisting.

Anybody here a tax preparer? CPA, by trade? Anyway… how much do YOU/they usually charge for their services? For tax returns.

My taxes are no longer simple (to me) anymore. I am married, I have children, and I purchased a home. I want to maximize deductions. I live in California, by the way. I used Credit Karma to file before. Thanks again.

$100 an hour ish. Dunno how it works in the US, but here childcare expense, eligible depedents, and home purchase are all capped refundable tax credits at 15%, not deductions. You're probably best off just reading about it and figuring it out yourself to save some money. The software should have places to put all of that stuff in.

I will have to look into that. I know somebody mentioned a “cap”. Don’t quote me, but I think it’s $24,000 jointly in the US.

$200 to file taxes is cheap for a joint acct!!!! that is a steal! I did my taxes on Friday and I was charged $175 for a single person! AND I owe the gobba ment $3,500!!!! Apparently I;m making too much money. RLY?? I know a single mother and she is getting $10k in tax returns! I donated 1 junk car and 1 junk Hyosung (corean shit bike, dont ever buy a corean motorcycle) in 2019 and still ended up paying taxes. what a joke..

Just learn it yourself. So much better for the long run. Usually they will correct you if you make some mistakes anyways. As long as you have the backing documents to match your numbers, you should be fine. Idk about the US but Canada has a website that has all the information about how taxation works. Being married and having children allows you to transfer some credits. It'll take time at first but you get the hang of it the next following years. Good luck!

I am not a tax preparer, but I have friends eldest in CPA’s with more 35 years of experience. Depending on the country, your residence, and your possible taxes. Any level of complexity to your return, such as business income, capital gains, home sale etc., I suggest you go to a CPA.
If the IRS raises a question about a tax return, only CPAs, attorneys and enrolled agents are authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS.
CPA tax professionals are often better aware of personal situations that may affect your finances, so the continuity of service you receive from a CPA may be an important factor to consider. CPAs are community-driven business people who will be there meet taxpayer needs year after year.
The CPA’s / tax accountants their fee is usually expensive. You would go to H&R block, Tax service tends to be the cheaper option; although not as cheap as make it yourself with TurboTax or Tax Act. I would just go to H&R block Their services have the lowest average return cost of all retail tax services. It has economic and higher prices at a more competitive cost.
The firm has overhead and profit to include in the $185 that it bills out.

A friend from the state of Nevada works there years and say that They have the lowest average return cost of all the retail tax services (Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax, etc).

Now to your question: You should qualify what you mean by "so much". What are your expectations on how much you think you should pay to sit down with a qualified tax professional to prepare your return? If you're comparing it to doing it yourself online, then yes it is going to be more costly. However, when you come in and sit down with one of they you get so much more than if you do it yourself. Also, if you take your return to a CPA, frequently they will not do it while you're sitting there with them. You drop it off and they can take days or weeks to complete it. And they may not have a discussion with you about possible deductions that would give you a bigger refund. We've also found, depending on the complexity of your return, the CPA may charge more.

*They have a standard guarantee that comes with all returns. They keep your tax return on file for five years, you have access to a tax professional year-round, and if they make a mistake on your return or the IRS disagrees with how we've prepared it, and you owe additional tax because of it, they pay the penalties and interest for you.

* If you have a more complex return, they can find deductions that can possibly get you more of a refund. Even if you think you have a simple return, you may be missing deductions that you didn't think you had. Also, they charge based on the forms they use on your return and the complexity of them.

*Like all businesses they have expenses to run our company. But they're so much more than that. You're paying for our expertise. Even if your tax professional doesn't know the answer to something, there are other professionals in the office that do. We have lots of resources that we can go to to find the correct answer. Each tax professional takes at least 17 hours of continuing education a year to increase their knowledge and stay up to date with current tax issues.

* They have a free service called "Second Look". They will look at up to three years of past tax returns and see if there were mistakes made on it or if there were deductions that were missed that could haven't gotten you a bigger refund.

And finally, my friend recommends that the person requesting the service of a tax return preparer requires that they be assigned a more experienced preparer in the office and not an inexperienced with very minimal qualifications to prepare tax returns, as the company usually does.

If it is for commercial business (small/ Big) it is a different matter.

sestovnai wrote:

ustijesruNR wrote: $200.00 seems fair considering what my local CPA quoted me. Then again, it might be because I live in CA.

Prime_c wrote: CPA's can be costly especially with experience. My sister is an accountant and her firm usually charges $185 for both fed and state but they get every penny for their clients. Depending on where you are, I would just go to H&R block, I believe their rates are a bit cheaper.

I have a unique tax/bond on my home called the Mello Roos I want to creatively deduct/write off. People who quoted me are also selling me a “we represent you in case of an audit fee.” LoL

edj1000 wrote:

ustijesruNR wrote: Thanks in advance for assisting.

Anybody here a tax preparer? CPA, by trade? Anyway… how much do YOU/they usually charge for their services? For tax returns.

My taxes are no longer simple (to me) anymore. I am married, I have children, and I purchased a home. I want to maximize deductions. I live in California, by the way. I used Credit Karma to file before. Thanks again.

$100 an hour ish. Dunno how it works in the US, but here childcare expense, eligible depedents, and home purchase are all capped refundable tax credits at 15%, not deductions. You're probably best off just reading about it and figuring it out yourself to save some money. The software should have places to put all of that stuff in.

I will have to look into that. I know somebody mentioned a “cap”. Don’t quote me, but I think it’s $24,000 jointly in the US.

$200 to file taxes is cheap for a joint acct!!!! that is a steal! I did my taxes on Friday and I was charged $175 for a single person! AND I owe the gobba ment $3,500!!!! Apparently I;m making too much money. RLY?? I know a single mother and she is getting $10k in tax returns! I donated 1 junk car and 1 junk Hyosung (corean shit bike, dont ever buy a corean motorcycle) in 2019 and still ended up paying taxes. what a joke..

That usually means you didn't withhold enough on the federal and state.