re: Should I find another CPA?

$450 for a personal return with Sch C, for a first-time client, to me, is plenty reasonable and even a bit less than I would charge. This is assuming you, as you said, gave him a clean list of expenses with backup. If you had just given him a mess of stuff, the cost would be much higher.

If you had given him your PY tax return, which contained the student loan interest deduction, OR you had given him the student loan interest statement, then I would say the mistake is his, and he should amend the return without charge to you - that's what I would do at least.

If your PY return did not contain the deduction, and you did not give him the info, I'm not sure it's fair to hold him responsible. Student loan interest is something I try to ask all clients about, but hey, it doesn't always happen.

We do give out a tax organizer to all our clients, which includes some yes/no questions and also specific questions about types of income and deductions. Your first year with me, the organizer is generic, after that, it's personalized with PY info.

I also don't think $165 is outlandish for an amended return. Using software, you basically copy over to a new version of the return, hit the button to copy the data onto the original column of the 1040X, make the changes, and put in an explanation, then print, review, sign, deliver. And because it's a paper return, it actually takes our processing staff longer to process (by a few minutes, but still) than a regular return.

You could certainly do the amended return yourself or wait and see if there are any other changes to be made.

quote:

---

He charges $450 to prepare a tax return. However, I found that I did all the leg work--entering into spread sheets all my expenses from 2014 and organizing all my receipts. Do most CPA’s work like this?

---

Yes. My dad is going to charge you a lot more if you just drop a box off of receipts to his office.