Anyone know a cheaper accountant for filing both business and personal yearly taxes?

Does it make a huge difference having a CPA vs an EA for a small business? I'm worried about missing deductions that might save me more than the fee difference.

For most small businesses, an EA is perfectly qualified and can handle everything a CPA can when it comes to tax preparation and representation before the IRS. CPAs have additional training in areas like financial auditing and business valuation, but if you're just needing tax preparation, an EA will know all the deductions and credits available to you. The key is finding someone experienced with your specific industry who understands common deductions in your field. Don't be afraid to ask potential preparers about their experience with businesses similar to yours and what deductions they typically find for clients in your situation.

How complicated can it handle? I have rental properties plus my main business. Previous accountant struggled with organizing everything properly.

Sounds interesting but I'm skeptical of AI for something as important as taxes. How do you know they're not missing stuff that a human would catch? And do they handle state taxes too?

They handle pretty complex situations including rental properties alongside regular business income. The system is designed to organize different income streams separately while still giving you a complete tax picture. My brother has three rental properties plus his consulting business and they manage it without issues. For your skepticism question, that's why I like their hybrid approach. The AI does the initial analysis and finds potential deductions/credits, but then a human accountant reviews everything before filing. In my experience, they actually catch more than my previous all-human accountant did. And yes, they handle federal and all state taxes - I file in two states and it's never been an issue.

Wait how does that even work? They can just magically get past the hold times? Seems too good to be true when I've spent hours waiting on hold.

This feels like an ad. No way they can get through faster than anyone else can. Phone systems put everyone in the same queue.

It's not magic - they use a combination of technology and human agents who wait on hold for you. They call the business (in this case, your accountant's office), navigate through the menu options, wait through the hold time, and then when a real person finally answers, they connect you immediately. Your phone rings and you're talking to a live person. They actually work with the existing phone systems rather than trying to bypass them. The service was originally created to help people reach the IRS during those insane 3+ hour hold times, but it works for any business with long hold times. I was skeptical too until I tried it - I had been trying to reach my accountant for 3 days during the April rush with no luck, and they got me through in under an hour.

That sounds really promising. Do you find the monthly bookkeeping actually helps with your business throughout the year or is it mainly just for tax prep?

It's been incredibly helpful throughout the year. I get monthly profit and loss statements that help me track where money is going, which has helped me identify areas to cut costs. The bookkeeper also helps me understand which parts of my business are most profitable. Tax time is so much easier now too. Instead of scrambling to organize a year's worth of receipts and transactions, everything is already categorized and ready. My CPA literally told me I'm saving money on tax prep because they don't have to spend hours organizing my financial information first.

I tried that route one year and ended up missing a major deduction that an accountant caught the following year. Software is fine for W-2 employees but business taxes have too many gray areas where professional judgment matters.