Cost for Preparation of Tax Return

[Alecia Loveless]

This year my accountant charged me $1800 to prepare my tax return.

I’m not sure if this is reasonable or not. My bookkeeper thought it was outrageous.

So I have 8 properties and the accountant received 2 P&Ls. One for 7 of the properties and another for the 8th that is help in a partnership.

I probably had an additional 8 documents regarding investments and their interest. As well as a W-2 document.

I spent an hour in office with the accountant going over things. Then we had about 6 brief follow up emails to finish sorting things out.

Does $1800 seem reasonable for this or should I start looking elsewhere for next tax season?

[Christanne Wright]

Hi Alecia, 

It can seem to be a high cost, however each region and firm has their own pricing. Are any of your rentals STR properties? These have to be reported a bit differently than your LTR properties.

For my clients we look at how many rental properties need reported with their associated Depreciation along with each K-1 from each business, investment trading that needs reported and much more. Foreign investment dividends, energy savings credit, and much more go into a tax return. We have a base rate and build from there to account for the complexity of the return(s). 

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with any questions.