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    Default Small business accountant costs

    So to give a bit of background first. I currently work as a city contractor, and part of it was I had to open a business for myself, as well as a business bank account, etc. I am strictly labor for the city and do not sell them parts, or anything of the sort. I have engaged an accountant that a friend who is in a similar position is using. I received my invoice for doing my taxes and whatnot for this tax year, and I am not sure if the costs are out of control, or in line with what it should be. Normally im the kind of guy that hits up HR block and does my usual taxes that way. What should I expect for costs of having my "business" taxes filed, as well as my personal taxes?

    Any help here is appreciated.

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    I think the range for a corporates filing is $500 to $1500 for simple companies. Obviously goes up if you are getting more complete service or more bookkeeping included.

    I did look into doing my won tax filing myself, but it was surprisingly confusing, even though I don't find personal taxes confusing at all. I gave up and paid my accountant again.
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    Quote Originally Posted by ShermanEF9 View Post
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    So to give a bit of background first. I currently work as a city contractor, and part of it was I had to open a business for myself, as well as a business bank account, etc. I am strictly labor for the city and do not sell them parts, or anything of the sort. I have engaged an accountant that a friend who is in a similar position is using. I received my invoice for doing my taxes and whatnot for this tax year, and I am not sure if the costs are out of control, or in line with what it should be. Normally im the kind of guy that hits up HR block and does my usual taxes that way. What should I expect for costs of having my "business" taxes filed, as well as my personal taxes?

    Any help here is appreciated.
    Is it a CoC requirement for you to be incorporated? They won't contract your labour if you are a sole proprietor?

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    Quote Originally Posted by ShermanEF9 View Post
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    So to give a bit of background first. I currently work as a city contractor, and part of it was I had to open a business for myself, as well as a business bank account, etc. I am strictly labor for the city and do not sell them parts, or anything of the sort. I have engaged an accountant that a friend who is in a similar position is using. I received my invoice for doing my taxes and whatnot for this tax year, and I am not sure if the costs are out of control, or in line with what it should be. Normally im the kind of guy that hits up HR block and does my usual taxes that way. What should I expect for costs of having my "business" taxes filed, as well as my personal taxes?

    Any help here is appreciated.
    I think I pay $1500 for my corporations, except one which is more complicated and I pay $2500 I think?

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    I'm in a similar consulting position, I pay approx $2600 a year for my business + personal accountant. Sounds like mine's on the high side

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    Is there a particularly large number of hours involved in filing business taxes or something?

    If it takes anything less than a few days to pull together that’s not a terrible use of time.
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    Did you open a Corporation or Sole Proprietorship? Corp taxes are quite complicated, definitely not something to tackle on your own and yeah I’ve heard $1000-1500 range is standard.

    Sole proprietor are a lot more straight forward and could be done yourself, but even if you pay an accountant should be much cheaper than a Corp return. Probably $500-1000 range.

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    Average corporate filing charges are $1,200 - $1,500 unless your file requires a lot more hours of bookkeeping, forms etc.

    Personal ~$400-500 from a reputatable outfit. A good friend of ours worked at H&R post-retirement for something to do, and she was appalled at the level of incompetance in that place.
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    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
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    Is there a particularly large number of hours involved in filing business taxes or something?

    If it takes anything less than a few days to pull together that’s not a terrible use of time.
    If your situation is more than very simple, then your accountant is getting paid to make decisions along the way.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Buster View Post
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    If your situation is more than very simple, then your accountant is getting paid to make decisions along the way.
    Fair enough. I just don’t really get the day to day mechanics involved I guess.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anomaly View Post
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    I'm in a similar consulting position, I pay approx $2600 a year for my business + personal accountant. Sounds like mine's on the high side
    It's sounding high on this thread, but I pay around the same as you.

    Own a small business, typical return includes corporate + personal (paid via dividends). First accountant charged around $1,900 for an entire year (biz/personal returns) and my new one charges around $2,600. With the mistakes and issues I had with the first, I'm happily paying the higher fee now and have no plans to change anytime soon.

    I do all my own book keeping in Quickbooks. The only "bookkeeping" my accountant has to do pre-return is to add deductions for rent, automotive, and a few small transactions that I don't know how to enter myself (incentives from vendors, etc).
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    Quote Originally Posted by msommers View Post
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    Average corporate filing charges are $1,200 - $1,500 unless your file requires a lot more hours of bookkeeping, forms etc.

    Personal ~$400-500 from a reputatable outfit. A good friend of ours worked at H&R post-retirement for something to do, and she was appalled at the level of incompetance in that place.
    $500??? I should tell me accountant that. It's cheaper for me to pay her than it is for me to buy a tax program :lol:

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    I use an external bookkeeper throughout the year but the actual accounting fees for year end review and filing of taxes is usually just over $2K. Keep in mind that A) it's for a small business with a few employees BUT B) every thing is kept nice & clean throughout the year by the bookkeeper so I'm sure that helps lower the bill with the accountant.
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    When I was working in a firm, very simple small bus corp taxes would be around $1,500, but anything requiring extra time (book keeping, etc) was easily $2,500.

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    We pay $1000 per tax season for just taxes. And this is me handing over our quick books to him so he really doesn't have to do much.
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    I'm in the $2200-$2500 range but I also bother the shit out of them throughout the year to help me make sure I have everything input into my journal properly on quick books and answer any other obsurd questions throughout the year. This year they also handled an EI dispute with the CRA on my behalf so I think my total bill came to $3,000 for the year. I run my own books through quickbooks
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