General CPA Questions

Certified public accountant near me

The IRS has the following tips for choosing a tax preparer:

1. Check a person’s qualifications. CPA’s are generally the highest qualified tax preparers.
2. Find out about the service fees. Ironically although they may have several years more experience and education CPA’s fees to prepare tax returns are often the same as the less-well trained tax preparers.
3. Make sure the tax preparer is accessible. Many tax preparers who are not CPA’s tend to open shop for just a few months a year, but try finding them 3 months later when the IRS sends a notice and where are they? Seeking out an actual accounting firm (versus a simple tax-preparer service) will generally guarantee you that the three IRS tips from above are met.

Certified public accountant – what do they do?

Certified public accountants (CPAs) can do any or all of the following:

1. Prepare financial statements
2. Prepare income tax returns
3. Calculate and prepare state taxes and related returns
4. Advise business owners on tax advice and recent business trends
5. Prepare specialized business reports that meet your business’ needs and provide tracking metrics to assist in making business decisions.
6. Prepare various other tax returns include gift tax returns, payroll tax returns, estate tax returns, etc.

Who needs an accountant?

If you are a new business owner you should seek help choosing the best business entity for your circumstances. You will also want to make sure the state level taxes are taken into account and calculated accurately. You will probably want tax advice to reduce your taxes while staying out of trouble with the IRS. If you are buying or selling real estate it is advisable to seek out an accountant to figure out the tax ramifications. If you need assistance in determining their estimated income tax payments.

Accountant vs certified public accountant

An accountant is a more encompassing term than certified public accountant (usually known by the acronym CPA). Not all accountants are CPA’s but essentially all CPA’s are accountants. Accountants generally have at least an associate’s degree in accounting (i.e. 2 years of schooling) and various levels of experience. CPA’s have a bachelor’s degree and usually a master’s degree (altogether about 5 years of schooling). CPA’s must pass four rigorous exams and then must pass an ethics exam and they must also have at least 1,000 hours of pertinent work experience in order to earn the certification. Additionally CPA’s must acquire a certain amount of continuing education to retain the certification and can be held to higher standards by state-wide standards setting associations.

How accounting can help a business?

Accounting can help you gain insight into trends within your business. A tax accountant can assist you in preparing an accurate tax return, in staying out of trouble with IRS and State Department of Revenue and in potentially saving you hundreds or thousands of dollars in taxes.

When to use accountant for taxes?

For most people, using a tax preparer makes sense in the following circumstances:

1. You own a business
2. You are considering starting or buying a business
3. You own real estate
4. You are selling or buying real estate
5. You would like tax advice about upcoming or past transactions such as taking money out of retirement accounts
6. You’re uncertain if you’re completing your tax return accurately

Small Business Accounting

Why hire accountant?

You can’t be an expert at everything. Many of the most successful business owners feel like by focusing on what they are good at and letting their accountant take care of the books and tax returns they make better business decisions and make more money.

Business accounting with excel

Accountants are generally very proficient with excel and use it to create various templates and models to assist taxpayers save money and analyze complication transactions.

Small business accounting – how to pay yourself?

I recommend you speak with a certified public accountant to make sure you are doing this accurately. The answers vary depending on the type of business you have set up, the number of years of experience you have, the business’ earnings and how much money you want to take out of the business for personal purposes among other factors.

Small business accounting – where to start?

Not sure what type of entity structure is most beneficial for you? New to setting up employees? Not sure what is deductible? Call our office at 360-286-2080 to set up a business advisory meeting. Let us answer your questions and help get you on the path to success.

Business accounting books

Need assistance organizing your income and expenses? Set up a consultation with one of our Quickbooks and accounting experts—we are happy to help you out.

Financial statement preparation

What is financial statement preparation?

Financial statements preparation allows a business owner to see their profit or loss in a given period. Businesses may need financial statements for management reports or to give to third parties such as banks to obtain a loan.

Cost of financial statement preparation?

It varies depending on the level of preparation and the size of the business.

Individual Tax return questions

Can you file individual tax returns when married?

You may elect to file separately. Generally this is inadvisable as the overall tax burden usually increases by electing to file separately. Why? Congress designed the tax laws to make it so that married filing jointly is usually the best option. A certified public accountant can assist you in determining if it makes sense to file separately in your specific situation.

Who must file an individual tax return?

If you are a US citizen or resident alien then determine whether you need to file a tax by using the IRS’s handy calculator: https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/do-i-need-to-file-a-tax-return

How to file individual tax return extension?

There are two ways to file an individual tax return extension. 1) Use form 4868 to prepare an individual tax return extension which can be found at the following link: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4868.pdf 2) Talk with an accounting firm and ask them to electronically file the extension if you are worried that it won’t be post-dated with the correct date.

How to prepare individual tax return?

If you only have a w-2 and 1095 then you should consider using tax software such as TurboTax. If you have used such software in the past, but are growing into more complicated tax issues such as itemizing, buying or selling real estate, or starting a business then it might be time to seek the assistance of a certified public accountant, CPA.

How to amend individual tax return?

You will need to print the originally-filed tax return and then make the required updates in the tax software to create the amended 1040. You must print “as originally filed” on the top of the originally-filed tax return and you must print “as amended” on the amended tax return. You will need to complete form 1040X. You should these three forms in the following order: 1040X, amended 1040, originally-filed 1040. You must submit a paper copy of these to the IRS.

Are accounting expenses tax deductible?

Potentially yes. If you own a business or investment real estate then accounting expenses are at least partially deductible. If you do not own these things, you are no longer to deduct accounting expenses as itemized deductions.