Tax return preparation fees

[lchoro]

You should hire someone to prepare your return.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by lchoro

You should hire someone to prepare your return.

Why? What the PP said makes perfect sense. You're spending time setting up a spreadsheet showing the year over year changes for each schedule(which is fine if you want to do that, I like spreadsheets too), while they'd rather just skip the spreadsheet and input directly into turbotax. Tax software will show you year over year comparisons. If he/she understands what goes into each schedule they definitely don't need a CPA.

[Crashj007]

Originally Posted by lchoro

I would get prior year's tax return and set up columns for worksheets for preparing 2016 and 2017 side by side.<>

If you get to that level of detail go ahead and check back to see if there are screwups or big discrepancies in the prior years. Maybe your new accountant can refile and that would pay for his time?

[lchoro]

No thanks. I prepare the returns myself. The previous response suggested just throwing it into the computer. I prepare the documentation necessary to complete the quarterly estimates and final return online. The prior year's return provides an outline of what information is most likely necessary to prepare the current year's,

[ACWhite]

Ichoro, TurboTax allows you to transfer prior year’s data into this year’s return. That saves data entry time. It also allows you to see “tax history” showing AGI, itemized deductions, etc., for the prior 5 years, if you used TT in those years. You can also import financial institution data directly into the right lines on the return via TurboTax.

My point is that the time you spend putting data into a spreadsheet is valuable and I don’t see why it makes sense to do this, AND then still have to prepare the return, taking even more valuable time, when you could instead simply put the data directly into TurboTax.