how much do you pay to have your taxes done?

[FuckRx]

this year i make a k1 income, have no property that i own, don't do any day trading and otherwise have a fairly simple tax situation. however last year i got divorced, sold a business, sold a condo and bought another condo and sold that one too...so very messy. i'm wondering how much should i pay for a tax guy. right now my guy charges me $1485 to do the taxes.

[NinetyFour]

I just paid a CPA $250 to do mine.  Besides my regular job, I had rental income (along with many deductions), and another source of income.  He basically improved my refund by $3500.  Money well spent.

[MustachianAccountant]

The only thing that looks difficult there is the sale of the business. Does he charge $1,400 in normal years? Also, does that $1,400 also include the tax return that generates the K-1 (partnership or S corp return)? If the fee includes one of those returns as well as your personal return, I'd say that's a normal fee.

[Cpa Cat]

I'd eat the $1500 for this year - because you probably won't get anyone to quote you a lower price as a new client with that kind of year.

But going forward, with a basic tax situation and a K-1, you're a $250 return. I'm pretty sure Turbotax can handle that.

That said - you can try to negotiate.

[FuckRx]

yes the 1500 would include all the K1 stuff and the rest of the mess he has to deal with. moving forward maybe i should attempt to do it myself and see what happens right? worst case scenario i'll have the IRS up my ass and down my throat ... in that case i'll crawl back to him and have him help me out.

[happyfeet]

Paid a CPA  $285 to do ours and dependent son who had a summer internship.  I also ask him questions during the year. 

[MDM]

You could spend the $80 at Amazon to get TurboTax Home & Business and try to do it yourself.  If, after doing so, you feel confident then skip the $1485.  Otherwise, spend the $1485 and learn enough so next year you can do it yourself.

[Rube]

I used to do ours and check them with the free version of Turbo Tax but my Schedule C and a couple of other items started to get overwhelming. Last year I finally had a friend who's a partner in a pretty big CPA firm do them. Our return is child's play compared to their typical client but it's a good excuse to buy dinner and drinks.  I think I paid a small software licensing fee too.

[Roland of Gilead]

I pay $16 for tax software and about $2 to mail the return (I do a lot of stock transactions and have a 80+ page return so I like to make the IRS have to handle it physically)

[gecko10x]

$400 for a CPA. Included self-employment sched C, rental income, investments.

[Numbers Man]

You are paying for the CPA's knowledge. With all those unique tax events, I think the fee is reasonable. I pay nothing except for the tax software fees and transmitting my return to the IRS.

[arebelspy]

$500.  Have used multiple CPAs, same price.  Mine are pretty complicated (multiple rentals, flips, K1s, W2s, lots of 1099s, etc. etc).

[nicknageli]

$175 for 2013 with CPA.  I really should do my own though.  Will probably try in 2014.

[Thegoblinchief]

$18 for TaxAct e-file, but while I have an LLC, nearly all of our income is still super standard stuff.

If I really got stuck, I have a brother who used to be a CPA.

[lexie2000]

I've always done our taxes myself, but this year I had an abandonment of a LLC with K-1s that would result in an extra $10K plus coming back to us so I am paying $750 to a CPA to handle it.  I'll go back to doing them myself next year, so I'm not going to beat myself up too badly for the $750 fee.

[Blindsquirrel]

  $750 for a CPA to do all returns and schedules for a 14 property LLC, state, federal, 8 city tax districts included, we do enter check book and CC expenses in Quickbooks Pro. Very complicated return, about 90  pages all together. She charges $250 for our personal returns, state, fed, local, all the normal schedules, DIV and short and long term cap gains etc. I think your tax person is hosing you in a wicked fashion.

[effed]

We pay a CPA to do ours. This year the personal return was $255 and the K1 was $455

[lizzzi]

$300 to our CPA who has been doing our somewhat complicated returns for years. We can call his office anytime throughout the year for words of wisdom, and there has never been a charge for that.

[Midwest]

this year i make a k1 income, have no property that i own, don't do any day trading and otherwise have a fairly simple tax situation. however last year i got divorced, sold a business, sold a condo and bought another condo and sold that one too...so very messy. i'm wondering how much should i pay for a tax guy. right now my guy charges me $1485 to do the taxes.

Does he charge you $1485 every year or just this year?  Sounds like you have/had a pass thru entity - Was he preparing entity return and the K-1?  A complex business sale could add quite a bit to the time/cost.

A simple 1040 with a w-2 and itemizing will have a vastly different cost than one with a business return.  Really depends on the complexity whether that is a good or bad deal. 

BTW, I'm a CPA.  I charge $175 - $250 for basic returns.  You start day trading, have a business, bring me a shoebox, it goes up from there.  Those of you with basic returns and math skills can certainly use turbotax or do it by hand.  Even on the simple returns though, I can usually pay for myself and that's always my objective (ie to bring value).

[soccerluvof4]

$350 by our CPA that does all our corporate taxes. Discounted from normal rate because of being a customer but ours are very complicated.

[ShortInSeattle]

$400 for biz + personal taxes. Sole proprietor.