Accounting advise: NC, SC and IL

[Todd Foust]

*Advice. 

Hey team,

I have a unique combination of tax situations, and I am trying to identify an appropriate CPA. Here is my issue: 

- I live in South Carolina

- My W2 and primary income is from company in North Carolina

- I'm starting a real estate rental business in Illinois

I started looking for CPAs to help and figured I'd start with accountants in South Carolina but so far everyone I contacted simply responded with "not taking new clients". I wonder if that is a graceful way of saying I cannot help you with your taxes in Illinois as I'm only license in South Carolina?

Questions

1. In order to get a CPA, would they need to be licensed in all three states in order to help me both with Personal and Business taxes/accounting needs? If this is a requirement, feels like odds would be low to find a match? 

2. Should I instead just try to land an accountant in Illinois and JUST ask them to do the accounting and taxes for the business only, then I'll just tackle the personal taxes like I have always done? 

3. Third idea was to see if TurboTax may still be able to tackle my scenario. Anyone use TurboTax to help manage the business taxes and returns, depreciations, tax benefits etc? 

Thanks for any advice or experience you can share. 

-Todd

[Christanne Wright]

Hi Todd,

Most CPA's are swamped right now with tomorrow's personal tax filing deadline for clients on extension. May I ask why you want a CPA? I am an EA, Enrolled Agent that is licensed to work in all 50 states. Most Enrolled Agents can assist you with the tax situation you described above. If you want someone close to home, then look in SC. If you are open to virtual then you can look in IL or across the country.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Christanne Wright, EA