Questions
Five, and the first one is the one that annoys people in February.
- When can I actually start with you?
- May through November. From January to April I am filing and I take no new clients at all — not for bookkeeping, not for a return, not for a quick question. December is planning for people already with me. If you find this page in February, the honest answer is that May is the earliest, and I would rather tell you now than take a deposit and disappoint you.
- How much will my return cost?
- An individual return starts at $450 for federal and one state, and goes up with self-employment income, rentals, or equity compensation. A partnership or S corporation return starts at $1,100. You get the actual figure in writing after I have seen last year's return, before any work starts, and it does not move unless the facts do.
- Do you do catch-up bookkeeping?
- Yes, and about a third of new clients arrive needing it. It is hourly rather than fixed because I cannot know what state the records are in until I look. Bring whatever exists — statements are enough, and nobody has ever brought me something so bad that I would not take it on.
- Should I be an S corporation?
- Probably not yet, if you are asking. The election starts to make sense somewhere above roughly eighty thousand dollars of profit, and below that the payroll cost and the extra return usually eat the saving. It also commits you to running payroll every month forever. I will run your actual numbers rather than repeat the rule of thumb.
- What do you need from me each month?
- Statements by the fifth, in the shared folder, and a reply when I ask what a transaction was. That is the whole obligation. In return the books are closed by the tenth and you get one page with three numbers on it by the twelfth.
Nothing on this site is tax advice, and no figure here is a promise about your own return.