How to find a good CPA for you !

Find a good CPA or a Tax Expert 

It is always worth having a good CPA on your side whether you are handling business or personal finances. Most of the start-ups do not consider hiring a CPA or consultant until they truly feel they must have one and sometime it may be very late. However, if it is not financially feasible to hire one, you can wait. Hiring doesn’t mean you have to pay a bunch of money and keep them with you all the time. You can buy couple of hours a month or a quarter on a retainer or on hourly basis for consulting when needed. Having an expert on your side will give you confidence and at the same time it keeps you updated on changes in tax laws and other business opportunities you can tap on.

You may have a question “how can I know who do I trust?” You might say “I hired a professional CPA who had a very professional website, pretty good blog posts, decent YouTube videos and even a very good presence on the Internet. I saw them ranked very high in the Google search but did not work out”.  Perhaps these are good starting point to inquire about a CPA but may not necessarily the criteria for evaluating the qualities of a professional.

In the modern technological commercial world of marketing, people spend tons of money on adverting, hire people to get a better rank on the Google list, hire people to write blogs, use AI technology and even ask other people to speak to send out the messages. There are instances, they portray themselves what they are not with the help of all those add-ons. Sometimes, the information they give in their ad is false and does make no sense to me at all.

What should you do?

First thing first - do not fall into all those promises of getting you full refund or saving you millions of dollar, getting you interest free loans, help you earn 100K in a month, and so on. Please note every professional should work under the law and abide by the rules. They can do only what the laws and rules permit them to do. They can only advise, plan and design strategies for you under the rule to avoid taxes.  If they go beyond rules that will be evasion of taxes and it is the criminal offense and you do not want to be get involved in those types of a deal.

Hiring a good CPA can not only save you taxes but also you will have a good resource in your hand to tap on other financial opportunities, investment venues and growth endeavors. They help you to stay away from unnecessary legal hassles, penalties and legal offenses.  They help you concentrate on your business by taking care of your financial reporting, legal compliance and tax issues. Tax saving is only one part of whole spectrum of financial arena. They can help you explore more on new investment opportunities help you evaluate acquisition or sale of business, help you to plan on expansion and of course save taxes on sell merger acquisition or dissolution of a business.

But how do you find a right CPA for you?

Here are a few tips

1.      Be clear on what you expect from a CPA before you hire them. Find out what your needs are whether it is for a tax preparation or you are looking for someone who you can consult on each move would take in your business.

2.      Talk to them in person if possible. You may use zoom or any other media to see them in person, check with them and interact

3.      Talk casual to know them. Talk about your industry and business in general and try to understand his knowledge about your industry or a similar one.

4.      Prepare some questions that were already answered and solved by you or your old CPA and try to find how he would handle them. Does he have better solution to that?

5.      Talk about his interests, life and values.  Try to connect and relate your value with him. Do they match? You’d like to work with a person whose values are somewhat similar to yours, that will create a harmony. Harmony brings you prosperity and fulfillment.

6.      Know about their availability during busy season or at the time you need them most. First meeting can be very fruitful but later they may not be able to be same as you expected to be.

7.      Penny Pinching may not give you a good result so keep away from the bargain. Generally good CPAs have a fixed hourly rate. If you are looking for a good CPA, you must be willing to pay a good price who can help you grow your business, save taxes and keep you away from unnecessary legal hassles in the future

8.      Do not shop around much. Just select or look for two to three CPA at a time to connect with and talk to them. Once you are satisfied stop your search and hire.

9.      Ask your friend for referral. It is an easy way to find a good CPA or any professional. It would save you time and help you find a professional who already have a good track record in no time.

10.   Seek a partner not a consultant. Look for someone who can stand by you when you need the most. Your CPA should be your friend who would help you find a solution together. He should be able to shows you the path and tell you where to go if he is not the one who can solve it.

11.   Check on them on how they do on privacy. How do they handle client information and how information is stored and what security measures they take? Even ask about hiring and firing policy of employees.

12.   Consider one who can provide you holistic solution. For example find a CPA firm that can provide you tax consulting, tax preparation, audit, review and even other financial helps so that you need not keep on haunting tons of CPAs.

13.   Keep your CPA know your CPA if he is a good team player good communicator and has higher value in life does it matter? Yes it does since he will be your partner work with you long haul. He should appreciate your values and similar to you. Working with like minded people is always fun.

In a nutshell do not get tempted to the flowery claims and luring ads. Talk to them, know them better and decide by yourself if the people you are going trust a great deal and work with for a long haul has the treats and qualities that you are looking for in a professional CPA.

Good luck !