It Pays To Shop Around For A CPA
April 3rd, 2006 by Grant in: TaxesI had my 2005 taxes done by a local CPA and she did a fairly decent job. It’s the first time I’d ever had my taxes done by someone else, and did it ever cost me!
I ended up owing the Federal Government about $900, and the local state government about $600. On top of that it appeared that I need to pay estimated taxes, so I mailed in about $300 worth to cover the first quarter this year.
Then comes the expensive part. I owed the CPA about $1,300 for preparing my corporate and personal tax returns. Ouch! But hey, the corporate returns are over my head, so I suppose it’s money well spent… or so I thought.
I was down visiting relatives this last weekend, and found out that I could have had a small-town CPA do my taxes for about $300. That’s total. The whole shootin’ match, and I would have saved about $1,000.
You live, you learn, I suppose. But that was an expensive lesson indeed.
2006 taxes will be different. It just goes to show that it pays to shop around, even for your professional services.
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December 28th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
[…] I got a letter in the mail from the small-town accounting firm I used last year to do my taxes. I decided to use this firm after a local CPA raked me over the coals for $1300 to prepare my taxes. The small-town firm only charged half as much. […]