Being proactive and consulting with a CPA online can provide you with valuable advice — saving you time, stress, and money. Most people only think of hiring a CPA when they prepare their tax return. While CPAs can provide valuable tax advice on how to prepare your return, they can also provide year-round tax advice. This can save you significant amounts of money come tax time. An accountant can help you with all of that, as well as troubleshoot the day to day activities of managing the finances of your company. Often you will hear small business owners talking about the need for an accountant at tax time.

This article was expert reviewed bySheneya Wilson, MS, MBA, CPA, an accountant and CEO of Fola Financial. Matthew has been working in international recruitment since 2008.

When is the best time to switch to outsourced accounting services?

She received her JD from Brooklyn Law School and has also written for The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report, SBA.gov, and Experian.

If you’re considering changing your tax strategy and hiring a CPA, there are some important things to keep in mind. They assist with preparing and filing tax documents as well as offering advice. When you have a simple tax situation, you can equip yourself with a tax preparation checklist and likely handle your taxes yourself. When you face a more complex tax picture, you may find hiring a professional is worthwhile. CPAs can help you online or in person to prepare and file your necessary tax documents as well as offer advice on how to optimize your tax return. Hiring a tax professional often works to your advantage when your circumstances are complex or involve a significant amount of work. An experienced accountant can typically handle tasks such as bookkeeping, payroll, and basic tax returns, but they may or may not be qualified to offer income tax advice.

Why Should You Have An Accountant For Your Small Business?

If you are being audited and don’t have an accountant yet, this is definitely a time to hire one. They can help you get your books in order to prepare and advise you on how to work with IRS auditors.

While a spreadsheet might work in the earliest days of a business, most startups upgrade to expense-management software fairly quickly. That’s because such software can how to hire an accountant help solve spend control problems and vastly improve the efficiency of the expense-reporting process. Learn when is the most strategic time to hire an accountant.

All you need to know about hiring an accountant

You have a straightforward tax situation with no dependents, no investments other than retirement accounts, and no significant assets or charitable contributions. Those basic, free versions of tax preparation software mentioned above were created for people like you, who have few deductions or other financial factors to take into consideration. You have the time and patience to deal with it.Taxes probably aren’t the kind of thing you should do with Netflix on in the background. Expect to set aside some time to give it your undivided attention — theIRS estimates the average person spends up to seven hours gathering forms and preparing their tax return. If you’re a business owner, expect to spend about 20 hours on your taxes. If your tax situation is at all complicated, you could opt to hire an accountant. You may also want to hire an accountant if you worry that you won’t have enough time to do your taxes on your own.

Provide a copy of last year’s return and ask for an estimate of their fees. Let them know about any special circumstances that affect your tax situation this year, such as marriage or divorce, purchase of a rental property, or the start of a new business. If they charge a flat rate, make sure you know what is included in that fee. For example, if you receive a notice from the IRS questioning the income or deductions claimed on your return, is responding to that notice included in the fee, or is that a separate charge? And we recommend avoiding an accountant who charges a fee based on your projected refund, as that fee structure may incentivize the accountant to try to beef up your refund with inappropriate deductions.