Turbo Tax Small Business or CPA

[Chef Isaac]

This is the first year that I am doing taxes for our LLC. I am just not sure if we should file with a CPA or use Turbo Tax Small Business.

I hear that if I run with a CPA, all I have to turn in is my Profit and Loss Statement and Balance Sheet. Then they simply put the numbers into a program that is similar to Turbo Tax.

Any thoughts, opinions, or suggestions?

[JohnK and Sheri]

I am not sure how detailed Turbo Tax is but I am pretty sure not many tax professionals use it. A lot of them use Quickbooks. I think it is from the same folks just more business orientated.
I would definitely recommend using an accountant who is well versed in agricultural tax law and the changes that happen every year. For the relatively small amount of money they charge, I don't feel it is worth fooling with myself, but some people actually like bookwork....
We give our tax guy a detailed list of all our income and all our expenses. We depreciate larger items and he keeps a running track of that.
Sheri

[Chef Isaac]

Thanks Sheri for getting back to me here and in the pm.

[sebee]

There may be many people who disagree with me on this one, but I strongly suggest you get a good accountant. You can rest assured that none of the wealthy individuals in this country do their own taxes, and that is no mistake.

Our wonderful government would love for everyone to use turbotax, but the reality is, unless you are a CPA there is no way for you to know all the details of the tax code (which are put there for the wealthy to take advantage of, and average folks to miss and end up paying too much). Dont kid yourself, the tax system was set up for the rich. My advice, get a good accountant long before tax season, keep up a good dialog with them and let them help you plan ahead (this holds true especially for you, Chef, since you have a new business up and running). Good luck.

[BEES4U]

I am not sure how detailed Turbo Tax is but I am pretty sure not many tax professionals use it.

The professionals use a Turbo Tax that's up-dated on a daily basis.

Turbo Tax is as good as the person setting at the keyboard!
I would suggest that you have your taxes done by a pro, save the programe to a memory card and get use to the programs within.
You will need all of your input data to make an accurate filling.
Make sure that you do the filling check and your comparison to the general public for your form.
Good Luck,
Ernie

[JohnK and Sheri]

Make sure that you do the filling check and your comparison to the general public for your form.
Good Luck,
Ernie

What do you mean by this Ernie?

Up until this year I used Quicken to do the bookwork for our taxes. We still used a tax professional. I gave him reports printed from Quicken. It gets more complicated every year, especially if you add retail to the mix, necessitating sales tax accounting or employees necessitating payroll and maybe workman's comp as well. As stated before, there is no way for a layman to keep up with all the details of tax code as it applies to the various aspects of a bee business. This year, I reached a point where I felt it is now smarter to hire someone to do every aspect of the books and spend my time tending the business rather than getting mired down with paperwork. Others may reach that point sooner than we did, others may feel they can best do this themselves.
Sheri

[randydrivesabus]

I'm a CPA and I suggest you get yourself a local one who is well versed in small business and farming tax issues. A computer program will not teach you tax law. I have used turbo tax to do taxes ( I use it to do my own taxes) and I found it to be able to handle most tax situations very well as far as getting it on the forms goes. But it will not tell you if you should expense or capitalize different items, or which items are tax deductions and which are not.

[Barry Digman]

Chef, I have a degree in accounting and worked for years as one. I wouldn't touch a tax return with a ten foot pole. Get a CPA.

[BEES4U]

What do you mean by this Ernie?

There's a feature within Turbo Tax that compares your deductions to the general public and it tells you how much you are inside or outside a tax bracket as far as total deductions. ( It may help to prevent a red flag.)
Ernie

[JohnK and Sheri]

Ah, thanks, Ernie. That sounds like it might be a useful feature if it can be narrowed down enough to suit the peculiarities of our industry.
Sheri

[kwest]

get a accountant. my dad always says that a good accountant will at least save you the amount that they charge. I have seen it so many times where freinds and family were doing taxes with turbo tax or on thier own and had to supposably pay. they take the taxes to a cpa and they end up with a refund instead.