questions to ask an accountant to see if he's "the one"

Just ask him about per diem. If he says anything other than you are allowed a deduction of $59 per day and you can claim 80% of the total, he's the wrong guy.

 

Ask him or her their policy on audit representation. My accountant will personally represent any audit and holds himself responsible for filing all documentation correctly. If I give him false documents then that is on me.

 

What is 1+1? If they shut the door and close the blinds and say whatever number you want it to be, that's the one.

 

If you know enough to test their knowledge you don't need them.

If you ask a question and they just say no with no explanation look elsewhere.

They should explain everything they plan to do.

 

I use these people atbsshow.com They send out a packet every year, I fax my papers in and presto.
Plus they don't charge extra for capitol gains and foreign dividends

 

And you have capitol gains and foreign dividends ? Thats not drivers compensation..well unless you do one load of coke from mexico.

 

I play around with online trading a little

 

I had a very bad experience with ATBS. Carrier gave me mine and someone else's large settlement one time and they did not catch it. That was one of their selling points that if anything out of the ordinary happened, they would catch it. Well, it was well over twice the normal and they did not catch it. Then they would not attempt to correct it at the time and said they would correct it in January when the 1099's come out. Well hell, by then my books for the rest of the year did not match-up with theirs. To top it off, they way overcharged me after screwing up my books and refusing to correct it until January. I learned my lesson on "mail order accountants".