As a business owner, you must file and pay income taxes.
Though you can do this work yourself, most people hire tax professionals to do this work for them.
If you are in the market for a tax professional, your first step should be to ask colleagues who they recommend.
Take the recommendations, select two or three of them and ask the following questions.
This exercise will take a bit of time; however it is time well spent.
You will likely keep whomever you select for several years, so some due diligence will definitely work in your favor.
1.
Do You Offer a Free Initial Consultation? The next step after selecting two or more tax professionals for consideration is to schedule an initial consultation.
Commonly, an initial consultation is complimentary; it is a marketing opportunity to sell you on their services.
Be proactive at the meeting.
Be clear about your current activities and future plans.
Ask them which services they recommend you buy, and why.
Ask what information they require in order to do the work.
Ask what you can do to make their job easier.
Perhaps you can provide your accounting data on a more frequent basis or in a different format and get a preferred rate.
Most importantly, get a feel for how accessible the tax professional will be if you call to ask questions "out of the blue.
" 2.
Do you have clients in my field? If you are an insurance agent and the tax professional has several other insurance agents as clients, they will have a basic understanding of what you do right off the bat.
Each industry is slightly different and so if the tax professional has existing clients similar to you, that will work to your advantage.
This is doubly true if you also engage the tax professional to help you reduce your taxes.
3.
Do You Have a Specialization? No one can know everything! Tax professionals often specialize in certain types of work.
Also, give some consideration to the difference between tax preparers and tax consultants or advisers.
Many tax professionals are very good at preparing returns but do not offer tax reduction or planning strategies.
You would not want to assume they are looking to save you money.
There's nothing wrong with "only" being a tax preparer; you as a business owner need to be clear about what services you are getting for your investment.
4.
How Long Have You Been in this Business? Many tax professionals have been in the field for many years, often working for another firm to get experience.
5.
What Are Your Fees? They will probably have a brochure that lists fees for the various services they offer.
You can use this to estimate what your total bill for tax services will be.
Though you can do this work yourself, most people hire tax professionals to do this work for them.
If you are in the market for a tax professional, your first step should be to ask colleagues who they recommend.
Take the recommendations, select two or three of them and ask the following questions.
This exercise will take a bit of time; however it is time well spent.
You will likely keep whomever you select for several years, so some due diligence will definitely work in your favor.
1.
Do You Offer a Free Initial Consultation? The next step after selecting two or more tax professionals for consideration is to schedule an initial consultation.
Commonly, an initial consultation is complimentary; it is a marketing opportunity to sell you on their services.
Be proactive at the meeting.
Be clear about your current activities and future plans.
Ask them which services they recommend you buy, and why.
Ask what information they require in order to do the work.
Ask what you can do to make their job easier.
Perhaps you can provide your accounting data on a more frequent basis or in a different format and get a preferred rate.
Most importantly, get a feel for how accessible the tax professional will be if you call to ask questions "out of the blue.
" 2.
Do you have clients in my field? If you are an insurance agent and the tax professional has several other insurance agents as clients, they will have a basic understanding of what you do right off the bat.
Each industry is slightly different and so if the tax professional has existing clients similar to you, that will work to your advantage.
This is doubly true if you also engage the tax professional to help you reduce your taxes.
3.
Do You Have a Specialization? No one can know everything! Tax professionals often specialize in certain types of work.
Also, give some consideration to the difference between tax preparers and tax consultants or advisers.
Many tax professionals are very good at preparing returns but do not offer tax reduction or planning strategies.
You would not want to assume they are looking to save you money.
There's nothing wrong with "only" being a tax preparer; you as a business owner need to be clear about what services you are getting for your investment.
4.
How Long Have You Been in this Business? Many tax professionals have been in the field for many years, often working for another firm to get experience.
5.
What Are Your Fees? They will probably have a brochure that lists fees for the various services they offer.
You can use this to estimate what your total bill for tax services will be.
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