How much does your accountant charge for taxes?

[Anonymous]

Every year I swear I'll get an accountant, so following with interest.

Every year life intervenes and I end up doing it on Turbotax the weekend before. We file in two states, have 4 LLCs, pension distributions from an international organization, two investment properties, plus all the usual wages, dividends, interest, donations, etc.

[Anonymous]

We went with an accountant this year and it is costing us $1000 but as far as I can tell all he does is type in the data to turbotax or something similar, no help at all beyond that -- we had an issue I thought would be complicated but for the most part I think even CPAs are just typists these days.

[Anonymous]

this years taxes were super easy on turbotax, 550K hhi loss of home office deductions but AMT is gone.

[Anonymous]

How complicated are your deductions?
We have similar complexity with an added rental property and a small business. We pay $500

One year we had almost a hundred transactions of stock sales and that bumped it up to 750

[Anonymous]

FIL used to pay $1500 to an accountant for filling out a pretty basic tax return (regular W-2 wages, mortgage interest, etc.). I have used Turbotax to do his tax return ever since - $70 and about 20 minutes of my time.

I have also done my parents taxes with Turbotax. Rental properties, carry forward losses, 1031 exchanges, etc. are no big deal with the software. They used to pay ~$500, but only because they had a longstanding relationship with their accountant. It took over after the accountant retired and they found out that the going rate for their type of return was closer to 2k.

FYI -- as long as you aren't a professional tax preparer, you can use Turbotax to generate up to 5 separate returns.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I only pay my CPA $160 (my DH and I file married but separate returns).

[Anonymous]

$600 to the accountant, HHI $360K, house paid off, so took the standard deduction. A few complications, like Backdoor Roth tracking, Opportunity Zone fund investments, 529s, K-1s, stock sales, which make Turbo Tax kind of challenging.

The accountant has software where I answer all the questions and upload all the documents myself, NetClient CS. I hate the software but enjoy the hands-on approach. I always begin with Turbo Tax (free) to see if I can do it myself, but always default to the accountant.

[Anonymous]

$385, hhi $200k

[Anonymous]

1k per return so 2000. I think this is on the high side though. He's a well known accountant in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just paid 1300. I used to pay $700.

I'd like a benchmark to know if this is typical.

Here are the specifics in terms of complexity for taxes

Gross salary 650k
Roughly 70k in deductions
Some mutual fund dividends (not a lot- not complicated)
Some stock (not a lot- not complicated)
IRAs and dependent care taxes


Is this normal or out of whack?

Depends if you are paid a W2 or it’s a small business. It doesn’t sound complicated on the surface if it’s W2 and bonuses since everything else you will get paperwork for to compete everything you need. In that case, $1300 sounds slightly higher for not much work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs earning 250k+ you are lucky (probably white). But not very sharp. You are collecting all the paperwork, spending time on answering questions, having some contact, then posting here because you can’t afford an extra few hundred bucks on a $650k salary. My 12 yr old can do our taxes. $350k, many many stock transactions, K1s, 529, charity, IRA. Turbo tax is meant for people with a high school level understanding of the English language. Tsk.

Good for you- you earn a gold star.

Now get off this thread unless you have something helpful to share based on the question asked about CPA rates.

Feel free to also start your own thread about Turbo Tax and its benefits.

That PP is so true though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1k per return so 2000. I think this is on the high side though. He's a well known accountant in the area.

I pay $1k per return too, but it saves me thousands per year so I don’t bank an eye. I don’t use an accountant though, but an enrolled agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every year I swear I'll get an accountant, so following with interest.

Every year life intervenes and I end up doing it on Turbotax the weekend before. We file in two states, have 4 LLCs, pension distributions from an international organization, two investment properties, plus all the usual wages, dividends, interest, donations, etc.

Sounds like you just enjoy paying taxes. TurboTax will only take you to the basic of basics for deductions.

[Anonymous]

HHI 800k. Our situation is similar to most, with a few differences:

Mortgage interest
Local property taxes (house and cars)
Charitable deductions
K-1’s for several Ltd partnerships
Realized G/L from taxable brokerage acct
Dividends from taxable brokerage
Interest from CD’s at two banks
Fed filing and filing in three states

My CPA charged $350

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs earning 250k+ you are lucky (probably white). But not very sharp. You are collecting all the paperwork, spending time on answering questions, having some contact, then posting here because you can’t afford an extra few hundred bucks on a $650k salary. My 12 yr old can do our taxes. $350k, many many stock transactions, K1s, 529, charity, IRA. Turbo tax is meant for people with a high school level understanding of the English language. Tsk.

Good for you- you earn a gold star.

Now get off this thread unless you have something helpful to share based on the question asked about CPA rates.

Feel free to also start your own thread about Turbo Tax and its benefits.

That PP is so true though.

Pure BS.