Is $1000 Too Much for a CPA to Prepare a Tax Return with Rental Property & Crypto?

That price actually sounds about right for your situation. Rental properties in different states create multi-state filing requirements which add complexity. The crypto adds another layer since it requires special reporting and calculation of gains/losses for each transaction. Most CPAs charge based on the forms required rather than a flat fee. Your return likely needs Schedule E for the rental, state returns for multiple states, and potentially multiple cryptocurrency reporting forms. Each of these adds to the workload. For comparison, a basic W-2 return might cost $250-350, but once you add rental property ($200-300), multi-state filing ($150-200 per additional state), and crypto transactions ($150-400 depending on volume), you quickly get into the $900+ range.

After struggling with my taxes for years (I also have rental property and crypto), I finally found a solution that saved me a ton of money. Check out https://taxr.ai - it helped me organize all my crypto transactions and rental property documentation. It automatically categorizes everything and even helped identify deductions I was missing. The system does a detailed analysis of your documents and identifies potential audit triggers before you file. It extracted info from my previous returns and gave recommendations that my previous accountant missed. The best part is I could still have a CPA review everything after using the tool, but I was charged significantly less because all the organizing work was already done.

Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai that I asked about earlier. I decided to give it a try before committing to the expensive CPA, and I'm honestly impressed. It handled my two-state rental situation perfectly and even identified a home office deduction I could take for managing my rental that I didn't know about. The report it generated made everything super clear, and when I took it to a CPA, they only charged me $400 instead of the $1100 they initially quoted because most of the complex work was already done! The documentation was so thorough that they said it saved them at least 3 hours of work. Definitely worth checking out if you're in a similar situation.

If you decide to go with a CPA, you might want to try calling the IRS first to verify some tax strategies they recommend. I called the IRS for hours trying to get someone on the phone to answer questions about rental property depreciation rules before hiring my CPA - it was impossible to get through! I finally discovered https://claimyr.com which got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold forever. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - it basically navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you, then calls you when an agent is available. I was able to confirm the proper handling of my rental property expenses directly with the IRS before hiring my CPA, which helped me make sure I wasn't overpaying for advice I could get for free.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it as a scam, I was desperate last week when I needed to confirm something about my rental property depreciation schedule before filing. Called the IRS directly and was on hold for over an hour before giving up. Reluctantly tried the Claimyr service and was shocked when I got a call back in about 35 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent answered my specific questions about depreciation recapture on rental properties and confirmed I was doing it correctly. Now I feel much better about my filing and didn't have to pay a CPA an extra $300 just to get that confirmation. Sometimes it's good to be proven wrong!

Have you considered doing it yourself with tax software? I have two rental properties and some basic investments, and I use TurboTax Premier. It costs me about $150 including state filing, and it walks you through everything step-by-step. The rental property section is actually pretty comprehensive. For crypto, you can import transactions directly from most exchanges or use a service like CoinTracker to generate the tax forms and then import them to TurboTax. Might save you $800+ if you're comfortable with it.

That price isn't out of line for what you described. I pay $1200 for similar situation - personal plus 2 rental properties and some stock transactions. I shopped around and found prices from $800-1500 for similar services. What I suggest is asking exactly what you're getting for that fee. Some questions to ask: - Does it include unlimited questions throughout the year? - Will they represent you in case of audit? - Do they provide mid-year tax planning? - Will they help with estimated tax payments?