Leveraging A Tax Accounting Service for A Hassle-Free Tax Season
In 2023, legislation was passed that will give the IRS $80 billion in funding over the next 10 years.
This means the organization will have the resources to increase the number of audits they can conduct.
The last thing you want is to find yourself or your business on the receiving end of an IRS investigation.
Paying your taxes doesn’t have to be stressful, and many people choose to outsource to a tax accounting service to handle this obligation.
Before hiring a tax professional, though, there’s certain information you should keep in mind.
Let’s explore how to find the best tax services for your situation.
Define Your Needs
Before moving forward, it’s crucial to define your needs.
This will influence the level of service you should budget for.
To clarify, there’s a strong difference between small business tax obligations and the ones a corporation deals with.
There’s also a chance you might not need a full-service professional.
The better you understand this information, the more time and money you’ll save.
It’s best to start planning your tax needs well in advance.
Some people look a year ahead when doing so.
Leverage Your Contacts
There’s a chance a friend, family member, or professional contact can point you in the right direction or provide a solid referral.
This is especially true if they own their own business.
It can be beneficial to ask a handful of people you know, and trust, so you can assess your different options.
Otherwise, you will be choosing a professional based on online reviews only.
Research Their Reputation
Under no circumstances should you hire someone without researching their reputation.
What do other people have to say about the experiences they had?
Did they encounter issues they weren’t able to overcome?
The answers to questions like these will help you eliminate insufficient options.
Keep an eye out for fake reviews during your search.
These are typically easy to recognize, as they’re often posted in batches and have similar formatting.
Ensure they often work with clients like you, as well.
To clarify, you may not want to hire a tax professional who mainly works with small business owner’s if you’re a large corporation or vice versa.
Interview Them
Once you’ve found a handful of potential candidates, take time to interview them.
Ask them how they handle specific scenarios, such as if there are errors on your tax returns.
You should also gauge their enthusiasm when speaking with them.
This plays a large role in the results you’ll get.
If they don’t follow up and ask questions about your situation, it may not feel they have a clear interest in helping you.
After your interviews, you can narrow down your choices.
Don’t be afraid to conduct more than one phone meeting to ask questions, if that is what you need to make a final decision.
The decision you make will heavily impact your financial future, and there’s no reason to rush through the process.
You also shouldn’t be afraid to walk away from the candidates you interview.
Check Their Pricing
You often get what you pay for when you work with a tax professional.
It’s a good rule of thumb to be careful going with a tax team that offers the cheapest option.
This may be an indication they don’t have the experience or resources to reach your goals.
However, on the flip side, you don’t have to hire the most expensive company or team either.
There’s a point of diminishing returns regarding what you pay, and more money doesn’t always equate to better results.
Somewhere in the middle of the price range can likely meet your needs without exceeding your budget.
Don’t Ignore Red Flags
There are certain red flags you should consider when assessing your potential tax professional.
Understanding these will help you avoid issues you may have otherwise encountered.
Listed below are some of those notable.
Guaranteed Returns
There’s no way to guarantee certain outcomes as a tax professional.
Anyone who offers selling points like these is misleading their clients.
By extension, this also means they may embellish other attributes of their services.
The last thing you want is to hire someone with high expectations only to get let down.
No Website
One of the biggest red flags to consider is a tax service without a website.
If you can’t learn more about them online, you won’t have insight into their reputation.
One of the best ways to find a reputable company is by seeing how they present themselves and their services.
Keep in mind their website might be temporarily down when you check.
If it has minimal uptime, though, continue your search elsewhere.
You can apply the same logic to companies that don’t have a physical location.
This is especially important when dealing with independent tax professionals.
Refund-Based Fees
Your professional should have transparent pricing, and they should have no trouble providing insight into what you’ll pay.
You should avoid services that adjust their fee based on your return.
This is considered a violation of professional ethics.
Instead, your professional should bill their clients hourly or impose a flat fee.
Regardless of how they charge you, ensure you’re fully aware of what you’ll pay.
This will prevent financial issues from arising in the future.
Refusing to Sign Your Return
This is a red flag many people overlook during their search.
All tax professionals are legally obligated to sign returns they prepare.
If they don’t do so, this could indicate it didn’t handle your text responsibilities correctly.
Find the Right Tax Accounting Service
It’s essential to find the best tax accounting service for your situation.
This will help ensure you minimize stress and make the process go as smoothly as possible.
Master Accounting and Tax Service offers premier accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and fractional CFO services.
We treat every client with dignity and respect, and we strive to continually learn more about our industry to provide better results.
You’ll gain more insight into how we can help when you book a consultation today.
Explore stress-free tax and accounting in Phoenix with Master Accounting and Tax Service. At Master Accounting and Tax Service, we specialize in providing top-tier accounting, tax, bookkeeping, and fractional CFO / controller services at an affordable cost and with the utmost integrity. Call (480) 456-4999 or Contact us today!
