Who does your Accounting?

I pay around $300 for the entire year for my taxes. I've set up my own s-corporation and am by no means a millionaire either or even rich for that matter. I will probably net around $20K this year, but I actually keep my own books of accounting....i.e. costs, income, expenses...etc. I think $300 to $400 per year is a pretty good price, not sure why he's charging you $450 per quarter.

I've never used an accountant. I've always done my own taxes.

However, I did have a consultation with an accountant about 6 months ago. He told me it would cost $200-$300 for him to prepare my end of year tax return, depending on the number of forms needed.

My personal opinion is that your accountant is charging WAY too much money per quarter.

For my online business, I've always used Quickbooks for accounting and TurboTax for taxes. Between them both, I've always been able to stay on top of the books....You might consider switching - It's a lot cheaper (under $250 for both) and very reliable!

Not in his defense, but he is charging for my online and total household, which is low 6 figures..

I do too- and no I get no income from self employment. Thanks for your perspcetive Denise, I appreciate it.

I'm still 19 years old, no knowledge in paying tax or etc. Do singapore need to pay tax for PR earning some money via online? I'm a student at the moment too

Are you in the USA? You are getting slammed. That's way to much, especially if you are not incorporated.

You may as well just buy the Software yourself. I bet it takes him less than half hour to crank out your quarterlies. Professional Accounting Software is spending but it really cuts down on the time to do the reports.

Use a bookkeeping service, then find a CPA to do your Yearly Return.

Quarterlies are not that much work to do yourself... even though it's annoying.

I pay upwards of $6k per year for accountants.

I've always done my own accounts after paying to get the set-up done correctly the first time. With the software available now it's fairly simple and it means you can do it on a monthly basis to track where your business is heading.

Nigel

I may be way out of line here, but really, who are we to tell anyone what to charge for any services?

I'm a copywriter. You can pay me a pretty hefty fee for a sales letter... Or you can go get one done at Digital Point for $25...

So how do I stay so booked that I turn down new projects on a daily basis, while the same guys doing the $97 sales letters are screaming "Hire me, over here, look!"?

Because people hire me for a specific result. They know that even though I'm expensive, in the long run it's money well spent.

The same goes for my accountant. There are cheaper ones out there, but she finds deductions I would never know existed, she tells me when I'm being stupid with my money, and she keeps me out of hot water with the IRS.

I pay her for her advice, her opinion, and her expertise.

If you need heart surgery do you go price shopping for the cheapest cardiologists in town?

This post isn't directed at anyone in particular, and for all I know the accountant could be ripping you off... Or he could be worth his weight in gold, I don't know.

If I'm buying a swimming pool, and one company quotes $3,000 and another company quotes $15,000, I'm going to take a long hard look at WHY there's a difference in price. And if there's a strong enough reason I'm usually going to go with the people charging MORE.

All I'm sayin' is that often times in life we get what we pay for. And just because one service provider charges more than another, that doesn't always mean that they're ripping you off. They may very well be worth 10x the price of admission.

My .02.

-Scott

I use Quicken + Turbo Tax.

If you're in the usa that's way too much. I sum up my costs and income and hand it over to my cpa, who does my spouse's taxes as well, and we pay less then that a year!!

If my cpa said to me 'it should not matter', I'd be out the door faster than an Olympic sprinter'

Do like Dave Ramsey says: shop around!!

Your guy's attitude tells me a lot.

I am a professional accountant FCCA (UK), so I do my own accounting and spend most of my day (8-4pm) consulting with clients. Over the last 3 years I lectured in financial and managerial accounting at a local college in the evening.