Small Business Owner - need an Accountant?

[kmackerman]

My wife and I are the sole owners of an LLC. I need someone to do my taxes both personal and whatever the LLC needs are. What kind of person do I need to hire?

I'm not looking for an accountant that I have to pay throughout the year, just once a year to do the taxes. Would something like HR Block be what I need or a private CPA, or some other kind of accountant/tax professional?

I'm ignorant in this type of thing and am looking for a non-biased answer so I didn't ask any "tax professionals" in my area.

 

[kirby]

Hi
As with other services ask your fellow business owners or friends for a referral. If all you need is tax work, then the person need not be a CPA but must at least be an enrolled agent. Be sure whoever does this work for you is going to sign the return as "preparer" as a simple test to see if they are on the level. Also ask your friends /fellow business owners how much they pay their tax person.

 

[Samir]

It depends on how many transactions are in your LLC and how good you are at keeping your own books.

If you don't do anything and just have a bunch of papers that someone will need to make sense of at the end of the year, it will be cheaper for you in the long run to hire someone for doing the work on a monthly basis vs yearly.

If you have your own set of books and are quite confident in them, then using someone like H&R block wouldn't be a bad move.

 

[Daniel Russell]

Hello Mr. Mackerman,

Samir and Kirby both gave sound advice. I would add that you want to consider the goals you have for the LLC. Do you expect it to exist long-term? Are you ever planning to sell it? What do your annual revenues look like, and is this your sole source of income? The more of these questions that you answer "yes" to, the more you may want to consider investing in the services of a CPA firm. Sometimes the cost of hiring an accountant can seem high, but if you look at is as an investment that is helping your business to succeed, it can change perspective. Good luck with your business, and your search.

Dan