CPA Advice

With everything being online now and paperless, the chances of you actually visiting your local CPA are slim anyway. Obviously you should have a CPA that you are comfortable with, but your circumstances are a little different than most.

See that's what I don't know, i mean my CPA now tells me theres really no need for in person meetings but at the same time that's what they have to tell me to keep my business. Its not that I don't trust my CPA, and I know there may be times I may take a small tax hit so the larger pot can be better off or something. I'm fine with that.

I'm fine with emails and everything online like uploading and what not, but sometimes its nice to sit down and have a face to face about how to handle certain tax situations. I'm not talking about a lot of time, 2-3 hours max a year which I'd gladly pay extra for. For example, when to go from an LLC to an S-Corp which I'll probably be doing in the near future.

My FIL pretty much has everything you can imagine financially and tax wise, so yes Trusts and everything else. I say that to be all encompassing not because I'm ignorant. He owns a rental property with 3 LLC's between him and it, his finances are about as complicated as I can imagine. So I understand his side, what I'm trying to figure out is at what point is it worth peeving him off to do what is right for me. Frankly maybe never but I'm not sure where I can find the right advice.

Part of the problem is its not just my FIL, he's self made well off, but there's more family money. So I know that if I start to break off from the family CPA/ tax attorney then there could be others. So everyone with a piece is trying to persuade me for better or for worse to stay together. TIA

I'm uncertain why you can't handle your tax consultation issues via phone or Skype. Who does things like this in person in 2016? Make a very detailed list of your questions, email them to your CPA in advance of your call, then call to discuss your issues at length.

On the other hand, I can totally appreciate trying to keep your business separate from family business. If you want your own local accountant, then get one. There is no reason you can't keep both: use your local guy as a "second opinion" on tax & planning matters.

I'm far from the guy that "sets up meetings to plan meetings", but at the same time sometimes its nice just to sit down for 30 minutes to talk about issues to scheme. Every time I make a phone call its usually get to the point and get it over, not very casual. This doesn't just apply to my CPA but work in general.

Furthermore, I don't know how much effort my CPA actually puts into helping me. A lot of times I just feel like they do the bare minimum. The biggest reason I want to change is I feel like they are constantly reactive and not preventative, it all has worked out in the end but they have made clear mistakes that they've had to fix. All of that has happened because of the lack of understanding of what I needed, which IMO comes from the lack of time given to me. I don't feel like its my job to make sure they know what I need, but its their job to give suggestions to help me plan properly. I mean how am I supposed to know what tax decisions I should make if I don't even know about them in the first place?

I just don't know if this is normal and having someone local I can stop in and talk to every quarter or 3 times a year would change, or not. I was mostly looking to see how often people actually meet with their CPA if they need assistance beyond just basic income tax assistance?

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I don't feel like its my job to make sure they know what I need, but its their job to give suggestions to help me plan properly. I mean how am I supposed to know what tax decisions I should make if I don't even know about them in the first place?

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The tax code and regulations are tens of thousands of pages. It's impossible for any CPA to just discuss the entire code with you without any prompting.

What needs to happen, is your CPA, whoever it is, needs to have a firm grasp of you and your business, so that he has an idea of what to discuss with you.

You also need to ask questions. You need to be proactive as at the end of the day, you are part of signing the returns and you will held responsible for them. Especially in your business, every dollar you spend is potentially a deduction. Now, there may be some limits and the laws may make some things completely non-deductible, but those are the questions you need to ask your CPA.

Maybe you would get more attention if you were with your own guy instead of a small piece of a large package. But if you have the expectation that your CPA should just tell you everything you need to know and you have no personal responsibility, you are going to find that you have issues with a lot of CPAs out there.

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I just don't know if this is normal and having someone local I can stop in and talk to every quarter or 3 times a year would change, or not. I was mostly looking to see how often people actually meet with their CPA if they need assistance beyond just basic income tax assistance?

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Most good CPAs, especially those that deal with businesses, want to see their clients more than once a year. I'm the most useful when I can work during the year with my clients, as opposed to record-keeping after the year-end.

I have clients all over the country, but the ones that are non-local are comfortable with technology and phone calls to discuss things. If you can use a phone and use e-mail, you don't need to have your guy in your town. Skype is awesome but it's really necessary either.

At the same time, I have many older clients that don't like technology and truly enjoy coming by for a cup of coffee or for a lunch.

I understand my place with my Cpa, I'm fine with that currently.

What I really don't feel is being met is planning this year and the future. I don't expect them to find loopholes or save me tons at all, I just want to feel like they have actually looked and have me under consideration.

For example every spring I look at any left over income I made from the previous year and add it to my prior year Sep-IRA as that saves me 40% ish on it from income tax. I'm always doing that kind of stuff on my own.

So that is my main question, is how often should the average person that spends well over the basic tax prep cost on a CPA meet and discuss things? I literally spend 0 hours with them during tax time as its all uploaded or emails with the occasional short phone call. Again I'm not looking for free help, I'll gladly pay an hourly rate once or twice a year. I've asked them this, but they don't ever seem overwhelmingly happy to make the meeting or prepared ahead of time. When it comes time it is always just, "ok whats up?" from them.

ETA: The only reason I've thrown in the other details is to show there are reasons that I stay around when I'm not content.

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Poodlebrain

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He posts here. I suggest looking for his post history and replying to one of them.

That is, if you want to actually be a client. He gives out enough free advice as it is. But it's always on point.

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how often should the average person that spends well over the basic tax prep cost on a CPA meet and discuss things?

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When I worked in public, I'd say only around 30% of our clients ever had a sit down face to face with us. And I'd say 80% of those visits were during tax season when they were dropping their stuff off and we'd have a quick sit down to go over any big events from the prior year. Those usually lasted 30 minutes to an hour. Everything else was handled by phone or email as issues for them popped up during the year. We never billed them for 10-15 minute phone calls, but we were a small firm. Bigger firms will nickel and dime you to death for every phone call.

It sounds like two things are happening. One, you're not an important client to them. We had clients we'd give poorer service to in hopes they'd go somewhere else. It's part of business. Two, they think it's a waste of theirs, and your, time to sit down for very basic questions/issues that can be handled by email and phone.