Is $14,000 a normal tax prep fee for itemized deductions? Just got quoted this amount...

So my wife and I are trying to get our tax situation figured out for this year. Some background - my wife gets paid as a 1099 contractor for a company that sends her a check each month. I'm a regular W2 employee. We bought our first house last year and we have a 2-year-old. Our combined income will be around $385k this year. Pretty straightforward situation - my wife doesn't have an LLC or anything like that, and we're not running any side businesses. Just regular jobs, a mortgage, and a kid. We met with this tax prep company yesterday and they quoted us $14,000 for their services!!! They kept saying it would be "just" 1/3 of what they could save us. According to their estimates, we'd normally pay about $60k in taxes, but they claimed they could get that down to only $15k or so - saving us $45k. The whole thing felt super sketchy with tons of red flags. They were throwing around these massive tax savings numbers without seeing any of our actual documents. I'm planning to reach out to a few real CPAs to ask about normal fees, but wanted to check if $14k is as insane as it sounds to us? Or is that somehow in the ballpark for people in our situation with itemized deductions? Honestly just shocked at that quote.

0 coins

19 comments

Zainab Ahmed

•8M

That quote is absolutely bonkers. I'm a tax professional and can tell you confidently that $14,000 is WAY outside the norm for your situation, which sounds pretty straightforward. For context, a typical tax prep fee for a family with your profile (one W-2, one 1099 contractor without an LLC, a home, and a dependent) might range from $500-$1,500 depending on your location and complexity. Even with itemized deductions and a Schedule C for your wife's 1099 income, you're looking at maybe $2,000-$3,000 on the very high end if you're in an expensive area with a premium CPA firm. The bigger red flag is their promise to save you $45,000 in taxes. That's an extremely aggressive claim for your situation. While there are legitimate deductions available to 1099 contractors, reducing your tax liability by 75% sounds like they're suggesting strategies that could put you at risk for an audit.

0 coins

Zainab Ahmed

•8M

Reporting them might be worth considering if they're making guarantees about specific tax savings - that's generally against professional ethics standards. You can file a complaint with your state's board of accountancy if they're CPAs, or with the IRS if they're Enrolled Agents. For your wife's situation, an LLC probably isn't necessary from a tax perspective. A Schedule C filed with your personal return works fine for most contractors. The LLC provides liability protection, but doesn't change your tax situation unless you elect S-Corp status, which only makes sense at higher income levels where the self-employment tax savings outweigh the additional compliance costs.

0 coins

AstroAlpha

•8M

I was in a similar situation last year - wife with 1099 income, me with W-2, and a couple of kids. I was getting totally confused by all the different deductions we could claim and honestly didn't have time to figure it all out with our busy schedules. I ended up using https://taxr.ai and it was a game changer. You just upload your tax documents and it analyzes everything to find all possible deductions you qualify for. It flagged several home office deductions for my wife's 1099 work that I would have missed, plus some education credits we qualified for. The system explained everything in plain English and showed exactly which tax forms each deduction would go on. Way more transparent than that sketchy company trying to charge you $14k!

0 coins

AstroAlpha

•8M

It's AI-powered software that reviews your documents, but it's way more thorough than TurboTax. It actually explains why you qualify for each deduction and shows which specific parts of your documentation support the claims. I found it much more transparent than working with my previous accountant because I could see exactly why each deduction applied to me. For quarterly payments, it has a calculator specifically for 1099 contractors that helps estimate what you should be paying each quarter based on your income patterns. It even reminds you when payments are due and adjusts estimates if your income changes throughout the year. This was super helpful for my wife since her contract work isn't always consistent from month to month.

0 coins

Keisha Taylor

•8M

Just wanted to update that I tried https://taxr.ai after seeing the recommendation here. Honestly, I was pretty skeptical because I've used three different CPAs over the years and they all gave me different advice. The system identified several deductions I've been missing related to my wife's home office setup (we've been claiming it wrong for YEARS) and some business expenses that my previous accountant said weren't deductible. It explained exactly why these qualified according to IRS rules and how to document everything properly. The best part was being able to see a side-by-side comparison of what my return would look like with different strategies. Saved us about $4,700 compared to what we paid last year - with none of the shady promises that the $14k prep service was making to the original poster. Super straightforward and everything was properly documented.

0 coins

Paolo Longo

•8M

That $14k quote is outrageous, but I understand your frustration with taxes. If you're having trouble getting straight answers from tax professionals, you might want to go directly to the source. I spent WEEKS trying to get through to someone at the IRS last year with questions about my wife's 1099 income. Finally discovered https://claimyr.com which got me through to an actual IRS agent in under 45 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent confirmed exactly which home office expenses were deductible for my wife's situation and clarified the rules around quarterly estimated payments. Saved me from potentially making some big mistakes on our return.

0 coins

Paolo Longo

•8M

It essentially holds your place in the IRS phone queue so you don't have to wait on hold yourself. The system navigates the IRS phone tree and then calls you once it's about to connect with an actual human agent. So you pick up the phone and you're immediately talking to an IRS representative. I was super skeptical too - I had tried calling the IRS directly at least 4-5 times and kept getting disconnected after 1-2 hours on hold. The longest wait I've had with Claimyr was about 42 minutes, and I was working on other stuff during that time instead of sitting with a phone to my ear. Not a scam at all - it saved me hours of frustration and I got my questions answered directly from an official source.

0 coins

Oliver Becker

•8M

I have to eat my words and apologize to Profile 12. After spending another 3 hours on hold with the IRS yesterday only to get disconnected AGAIN, I decided to try Claimyr in desperation. Got a call back in 37 minutes and was connected to an actual IRS agent who answered all my questions about home office deductions for my wife's consulting business. She explained exactly which expenses qualified and which didn't based on our specific situation. To the original poster - definitely don't pay $14k for tax prep, but also don't just trust random people online (including me). Getting answers directly from the IRS gave me way more confidence that I'm doing things correctly and not risking an audit. Wish I'd known about this service years ago.

0 coins

CosmicCowboy

•8M

I think people are overlooking a major red flag here. If they're claiming they can save you $45k on taxes when you're expecting to pay $60k, that implies they're suggesting extremely aggressive deductions that could trigger an audit. A legitimate tax preparer might be able to save you some money with proper planning, but a 75% reduction in tax liability for a straightforward situation like yours is suspicious. They're either: 1) Lying about how much they can save you to justify their absurd fee 2) Planning to use questionable or potentially illegal methods Either way, stay far away from them. A good CPA should charge you $1-3k max for your situation.

0 coins

CosmicCowboy

•8M

Absolutely - these aggressive tax schemes often lead to audits, and the companies that promote them typically don't offer audit protection (or if they do, the fine print makes it nearly worthless). Most legitimate CPAs approach tax planning conservatively, focusing on documented deductions that clearly follow tax code. The aftermath of an audit can be financially devastating. Beyond the immediate penalties and interest, there's often a cascade effect where the IRS expands the audit to previous tax years if they find significant issues. Then you're dealing with multiple years of amended returns, additional penalties, and potentially having to pay for professional representation during the audit process.

0 coins