Top 5 Things a CPA Will Want to Know From You

You will need to hire an accountant to do your taxes unless your income tax payment is really small and your returns are simple enough so that you can file them on your own. The tax season is not so far away, which is why you should hurry up and identify the right CPA firm if you haven’t already.

 Relying on an expert to do your taxes for you would give you peace of mind and make sure your finances are taken care of and you will not get into any trouble with the IRS.

But if you’re going to hire a CPA to do your taxes, here are 5 things your CPA will want to know from you.

#1: Your CPA will have a frank discussion with you on your tax requirements. He will want to know if you are filing taxes as an individual or as a business and the nature of your business. The CPA will want to get a sense of the tax specifications of your business.  You should carry some important documents to the meeting with the CPA related to your business, as specified by him.

 #2: Your CPA will want to know your objectives. He will decide on the procedure for filing the tax and set a suitable time frame, which is well within the deadlines and will be based on the complexity of your business. He will set tax saving targets and negotiate the various terms related to the filing of taxes.

#3: The CPA will want to have all possible financial documents related to income and expenses, which is relevant to the tax filing.  These documents help him file taxes accurately. Arranging these documents manually is a very difficult task.

The CPA makes use of cloud-based accounting services such as QuickBooks on the Cloud, ATX Tax Software on the Cloud, Quicken on the Cloud, ProSeries Tax Software on the Cloud, Drake Software on the Cloud and Lacerte Tax Software on the Cloud to automate data entry and automatically sort the documents.

#4: The CPA will require proof for tax deductions. He suggests the possible tax deductions that you are eligible for, with the caveat that you will have to produce a proof for each of the deductions. For example, charitable donations are tax deductible. So you will need to produce a proof for that. Bills of business travel are tax deductible as well, as long as you are able to produce bills for them.

#5: The will collaborate with you during the various stages in the process with the help of cloud computing. Cloud accounting services such as hosted QuickBooks allow for multiuser collaboration on the same accounting files or data. This makes it easier for you to share files with your accountant and stay in the loop.