It's That Time Of The Year Again, Gang

when I go and buy Turbo Tax at Costco along with with the tp and pot roast. I take it a lot of you all send out your taxes (since you are retired and/or heavyweights after all). I am starting to think why not just pay someone to do it? What do you cats do and how much is the cost for you to have an expert do it for you? Now, keep in mind I do have my buddy who works at the IRS who usually scrutinizes my return before I send it off.

My taxes are fairly complicated and getting more so every year. I don’t dare do it myself. I need a CPA’s signature to lend it some legitimacy… I pay around $1500, tax-deductible.

Geez, really? I wasn’t expecting that much (even with the complexity which I am sure you have).

To me it’s pretty good value. But I feel I am already pushing my CPA’s limit. In a couple years I may need to find one more industrial strength…

So it has been $1500 pretty steadily or incremental increases to that lately?

Pretty steady.

That’s what I am debating this year. I used to do in the past coz hard to find CPA who is also well versed for Canadian tax, but those days are over now. I just interviewed one yesterday and they charged 150/month (subscription model), with unlimited email support though out the year. And two hours strategy meeting to customize and plan when you started. So that comes to 1800/yr.

How do you define you are pushing your CPA’s limit?

My CPA doesn’t do S-Corp, only LLC. After a certain point I need to file my business as an S-corp to avoid paying self employment tax. I am also exploring setting up a defined benefit plan for my business, and I already have a 401k. If my business gets bigger, to a certain level it may not make sense to pass all profits thru to me personally.

I will talk with her about that this year.

Are you referring to RE?

No.

What? You mean you are making $.05 for every new entry or view click on this site???:slight_smile:

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Our fearless leader is building his empire (RE+others!). I like it.

My tax (both corp and individual) is also complex and getting complicated more every year. With lot of 1099/98 (both stock and real estate) investments, I publish a book size of 200 - 250 pages to him every year. Last 10 years, I have been using a CPA and do not like to do the nightmare work on my own. I pay appx $1000/year that includes his free tax consulting help on various issues. I do not even thinking of doing tax on my own.

@Jil would you recommend your CPA? Does he do S corp?

He does S corp, sending you the info by PM soon.

He will not have any short cut (or crooked ideas to cut taxes), but provides cautious approach to avoid tax audit issues. I like him for this reason so that I do not need to go through IRS audit.

PM me too. Ty. I may want to set up a LLC.

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Does it make sense to pay for tax consultation and do your taxes yourself using turbotax?

When I first came to USA, I pay for tax consultation and let the accountant did the tax for me because I am totally unfamiliar with US tax codes. After that, use turbotax. Sometime in the future, I might want to set up a LLC, again not familiar with tax code relating to that, so would like to use a tax consultant, at least for the first time.

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For setting up LLC or S-corp, you do not need help from CPA, but directly get it from Intuit site as they get small fee and help you.

You need CPA to file company tax for IRS and CA. This is complex even though Intuit provides corporate tax filing software.

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It depends on your circumstances. My wifey and I are W2 employees and we have a few properties and that’s about it. Reasonably easy I think for TT to handle, IMO, and I have been doing that since acquisition of first property. Now, granted my best friend works for the IRS so I have access to a revenue agent’s mindset that a normal person wouldn’t typically have.

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