How much does your accountant charge for taxes?

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

$3500. Ours are a little complicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$3500. Ours are a little complicated.

Also - why not just try turbo tax. We use an accountant because we have a bunch of k-1s with different types of income, including some that requires hand prepared attachments. If you just have the things listed, try Turbo Tax.

[Anonymous]

I don't have an accountant. But I'll do your taxes for $500. Because your tax situation sounds super easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$3500. Ours are a little complicated.

What is a 'little complicated' mean?

I'd like to know what makes taxes harder/longer to do for CPA?

I feel like my CPA just taks on an extra 20-30% YOY when he sees our salary went up. I don't get it.

[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?

You can do that with TurboTax.

$80 at most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

You can do that with TurboTax.

$80 at most.

This is OP- I realize it would be very cheap to do myself. However, don't have the time or patience to do turbo tax type solution. I also don't trust myself to be able to quality check the results of a software program. I am willing to pay somebody or the convenience of not doing myself (and so they can be accountable for the final result), but I want to pay a reasonable rate. So Turbo Tax is not an option...Really just hoping to know whether my CPA is charging me fairly or just looking at my income and determining a rate that is some % of my income.

[Anonymous]

$564 last year. $384K income, Child credit, AMT, 3 stock sales, VA return. Went with Turbo Tax this year for $179 which includes their “audit” service if that comes up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$3500. Ours are a little complicated.

What is a 'little complicated' mean?

I'd like to know what makes taxes harder/longer to do for CPA?

I feel like my CPA just taks on an extra 20-30% YOY when he sees our salary went up. I don't get it.

K-1s, foreign income, bunch of attachments. Our filing is usually about 3 inches thick with the bulk of it hand prepared attachments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$564 last year. $384K income, Child credit, AMT, 3 stock sales, VA return. Went with Turbo Tax this year for $179 which includes their “audit” service if that comes up.

Super helpful benchmark. Thank you!

OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

You can do that with TurboTax.

$80 at most.

This is OP- I realize it would be very cheap to do myself. However, don't have the time or patience to do turbo tax type solution. I also don't trust myself to be able to quality check the results of a software program. I am willing to pay somebody or the convenience of not doing myself (and so they can be accountable for the final result), but I want to pay a reasonable rate. So Turbo Tax is not an option...Really just hoping to know whether my CPA is charging me fairly or just looking at my income and determining a rate that is some % of my income.

Isn't it *more* time consuming to meet with an accountant?

How can you not trust yourself to check software output but do trust yourself to check accountant output?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

You can do that with TurboTax.

$80 at most.

This is OP- I realize it would be very cheap to do myself. However, don't have the time or patience to do turbo tax type solution. I also don't trust myself to be able to quality check the results of a software program. I am willing to pay somebody or the convenience of not doing myself (and so they can be accountable for the final result), but I want to pay a reasonable rate. So Turbo Tax is not an option...Really just hoping to know whether my CPA is charging me fairly or just looking at my income and determining a rate that is some % of my income.

Isn't it *more* time consuming to meet with an accountant?

How can you not trust yourself to check software output but do trust yourself to check accountant output?

We don't meet with the accountant. we put all our paperwork in a file and drop it off. We answer a simple questionnaire. It's all done by email. No phone conversations. We don't 'check' the output. i mean we look it over to make sure things we know about show up in line items (i.e. IRA, child care etc). And if the payment is significant we'll do a more thorough look at line items. But its not like I am spending hours checking the thick packet that comes back and recalculating each line myself. As a professional I trust that the CPA has done their job...I'm not even sure what I would look for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

You can do that with TurboTax.

$80 at most.

This is OP- I realize it would be very cheap to do myself. However, don't have the time or patience to do turbo tax type solution. I also don't trust myself to be able to quality check the results of a software program. I am willing to pay somebody or the convenience of not doing myself (and so they can be accountable for the final result), but I want to pay a reasonable rate. So Turbo Tax is not an option...Really just hoping to know whether my CPA is charging me fairly or just looking at my income and determining a rate that is some % of my income.

Isn't it *more* time consuming to meet with an accountant?

How can you not trust yourself to check software output but do trust yourself to check accountant output?

We don't meet with the accountant. we put all our paperwork in a file and drop it off. We answer a simple questionnaire. It's all done by email. No phone conversations. We don't 'check' the output. i mean we look it over to make sure things we know about show up in line items (i.e. IRA, child care etc). And if the payment is significant we'll do a more thorough look at line items. But its not like I am spending hours checking the thick packet that comes back and recalculating each line myself. As a professional I trust that the CPA has done their job...I'm not even sure what I would look for.

Then why would you check the tax software?

[Anonymous]

I think the hardest part is getting all the paper work together..which you have to do for an accountant too. You can download most 1099 data if it is from a Vanguard or Morgan Stanley type broker and w-2 as well. I enter my interest and some separate 1099's mostly. There is no extra work for child tax credit or AMT. Turbo Tax calculates it all. For the small cost of turbtax, try it one year and compare it to your accountant.

[Anonymous]

$700, HHI $250

Been with the accountant since right after college, there was no turbotax, and my dad said he wasn't doing them for me. So I hired a CPA who was a friend of my dermatologist (ran into both of them on a metro ride home one day). It just worked out and I am happy to not have to do it.