Selecting a Business Tax Professional

Accounting: Lesson 13

Owner of Phipps CPA, Jennifer Phipps, discusses how to select your business tax professional.

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Video Lesson Topics

- Research

In order to find a good tax professional, you need to do your research. You should check websites, various search engines, and the firm’s direct website. The most helpful method is referrals from trusted acquaintances. Once you have found a tax professional that you would like to work with, reach out. Do this by calling the firm or emailing them via their informational website. Once you have done this, you can determine a few things on your own. What is their response time, and are their responses professional? If they offer a free consultation, it is the perfect opportunity to see what you think of them and how it will be to work with them. The tax professional should give you a very clear idea of how your fees will look if you choose to do business with them. Some firms offer hourly fees, while others offer a flat fee.

- Meeting with a Potential Candidate

When meeting a potential candidate to be your tax professional, there are several things you should pay close attention to:

Are they complimentary in their thoughts to your business strategies and tax planning approaches?
Do they share your thoughts on how you would like your business to grow?
If you do not share the same goals with the tax professional, will they still support you and your desires of how to handle business and tax strategies?
These goals and ideas that you may or may not agree upon are your deductions, methods of reporting various items, and many other items on your tax filings.
Do your personalities match? This is extremely important because you are going to spend a lot of time with this person to get your business goals accomplished.
Most importantly, do you have trust in this person? During your interview, determine if you entrust them and their level of experience. Their experience should align with your business’ needs.

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