How much are you paying for a CPA and what all are they doing

My CPA specializes in transportation business. Runs me about $1400 a year that is tax deductable. A lot of that is invested in analysis of my settlements that I'd be doing otherwise - keeps my weekly time investment down to about 10 minutes a week. Maybe another 10 hours of work with receipts, tax organizer data, reviewing my forms before filing. Money well spent.

I generate my own profit and loss statements - that's the 10 minutes per week for data entry into a spreadsheet. That generates weekly, monthly and quarterly/yearly statements.

 

He sent me a spreadsheet that corresponds with the Schedule C off the tax return. I then personalized some of the codes to fit my personal needs.

 

I'm a new owner operator and I have no idea on how to find an accountant or even find one that knows about truck driver funds and all. Someone please help

 

If you don't know how to find someone local google it and find one of the company's that come up. There are national firms specializing in it for truckers but like everything you need to research them with BBB or call OOIDA

 

I wouldn't do any of the DIY type software. I did that in 2010, and I got screwed on taxes. Don't go to someplace like Jackson Hewitt or H&R block. Made that mistake. Find an actual CPA that is accredited with the BBB. A good CPA will know a lot more about tax laws and deductions, In 2012, I accidentally made too much money. So he did a 5 year average, and had income deferred. My accountant charges me $600 a year and I have to file two tax returns. Plus if you go through an IRS audit, their name is on the paper as well.

 

My husband and I use Paul Windham out of Birmingham AL, we pay him 1320 a year. He does all our quickbooks entries on a weekly basis. All our expenses are ran thru our back account which he reconciles monthly. Only thing we have to do is give him recipets/days out/any out of pocket expenses at the end of the year. He also helps out on any other financial matter you may need. We've been blessed to find such a great person to handle all our needs. Here is his website http://www.wfgpc.com/

 

I just drew up relational spreadsheets on my laptop that talk to each other a long time ago to keep all information in and forward the summary sheets to my Accountant who does my tax stuff. She does my personal and business returns and files my monthly payroll withholding stuff to the IRS. I am an LLC that is taxed like an S corp so I am technically on payroll for myself at a average income rate and then additional profits are distributed to me. Doing it that way saved me ballpark $5K - $6K a year in taxes. Total cost to the accountant is less than $1000 a year.

For me, it is easy to put each day's information in the spread sheets as it occurs. I just stash receipts in envelopes marked for that month. All settlements, fuelings, etc are downloaded to my laptop and stored in their own disk files. When I get home each weekend, I turn on the backup feature on the laptop and everything automatically gets backed up on a 3TB disk at home.

 

You already have all the data, sorted and categorized. Other than filling out the forms, what value does the accountant bring?

 

Like others have stated, keeping abreast of changes in tax law and just plain saving me the time of fooling with the stuff. It was my accountant that suggested and showed the benefit of doing an LLC and having tax structure like a S corp. That alone saved me $5-6000 a year. It does require monthly IRS filings, but then, it is still a major net savings. Less than $1000 a year to save $5-6000. That sure makes a heck of a lot more sense than some folk's idea of spending a dollar to be able to write off 25 cents on their tax return.

 

Spend zero money on an accountant wife does it with QuickBooks and TurboTax