Tax Preparation Services
What distinguishes Michael Salomon CPA from other Tucson CPAs?
He has prepared more than 10,000 returns involving every tax situation there is for individuals and small businesses. He has done the accounting and tax services for all kinds of small businesses including restaurants, trucking companies, law firms, doctors, dentists, chiropractors, dry cleaners, real estate developers, builders, taxi companies, produce distributors and most any small business you can think of. He has also provided tax services to high profile people like NFL football players, Major League Baseball players, professional wrestlers, actors and a gold medal winning Olympic athlete. Over the years he has helped hundreds of clients successfully resolve issues with the IRS.
"Best accountant I have had in 30 years of doing business. He has made several great recommendations to me to help with savings and also reviewed prior years taxes and amended them. I highly recommend Michael." – Kathy F.
Income tax preparation
We offer Tucson tax preparation in the following areas:
- Individuals
- Partnerships
- Corporations
- S-Corporations
- Estates and Trusts
Preparing a tax return is very complicated, as Albert Einstein said
Many tax preparers have very limited experience and training. Here is a recent newspaper ad:
** TAX PREPARERS ** FREE TAX SCHOOL. Learn to earn extra income after taking 8 week tax course. Flex schedules. 3 convenient locations. Register now! Courses start October. Small fee for books.
I used to teach classes for one of these tax franchises. It was an 8 week class that was very well organized and presented. There were lots of smart people in the classes. The next month after the class was over they were preparing tax returns for people like you. These part time preparers were excellent at their day jobs as plumbers, firemen and taxi drivers. They could do their jobs a lot better than I could ever do the jobs of their profession. My profession is professional tax preparer. I have been preparing taxes for over 25 years, was an IRS agent and I am a CPA.
You probably wouldn't want me trying to put out the fire in your house like a fireman, and it probably wouldn't go well if you had a fireman preparing your taxes.
You need your taxes done, you don't want to do them yourself, and now you're faced with choosing a tax preparer that you hope will do a good job, help you pay the least amount of taxes by law, and keep you out of trouble with the IRS. But how do you choose the best person when you don't know anything about taxes?
What makes a good tax preparer?
The gold standard
The first thing to ask a tax preparer is what certifications they hold. The CPA is the gold standard.
The size of the CPA firm has very little to do with quality. However, the larger the firm is, the higher the price is, usually due to quality-control issues and layers of management. I've seen some excellent one-CPA and two-CPA offices; in fact, I've seen many industry awards go to small CPA firms recognizing their excellent tax work.
Each CPA is licensed by their state's board of accountancy, so make sure the CPA you hire can practice in the state you need tax expertise and is holding a current active license.
An alternative would be an Enrolled Agent (EA). Enrolled Agents are federally licensed tax practitioners who specialize in taxation and have unlimited rights to represent clients before the IRS. Whereas a CPA is tested in a wide range of accounting, auditing and tax knowledge, the EA exam is not as difficult as the CPA exam and is limited in scope to tax problems. The greatest value in EAs is their ability to represent their clients to the IRS if needed, and they are often a lower-cost alternative to a CPA.
If your tax preparer does not have either of these certifications, you can expect to pay much less, but you might not be getting the highest-quality job.
Experience matters
It's a fair question to ask your tax preparer roughly how many business returns they do each year. A good tax preparer making their sole living from taxes should be doing at least 100 total returns a year, and most solid full-time tax preparers will do 300 to 500 per year, depending on how complicated each return is and how many support staff they have. About a third of these will be business returns.
Services
The services you need should line up with the services that the firm offers. Here are some questions to think about when considering what type of help you need:
- Are they familiar with your specific tax needs? Perhaps you have a farm, sold a house in another state or have a non-profit; find out if they can handle your circumstances.
- Will they provide you with options and the related risks of those options?
- Will they explain your return?
- Do you need help with tax planning?
- Do you need advice related to your retirement account?
- Do you want them to represent you if the IRS contacts you?
- Do you also need an accountant or bookkeeper?
If you'd like more information about our Tucson tax preparation services, call us at (520) 589-7000 or contact us here.