Looking For A Accountant?

[jamesbishop911]

Here are some questions you can ask to help ensure you find an experienced, trustworthy tax accountant:

1. What licenses or designations do you have?
2. How long have you been in the tax business?
3. What tax issues do you specialize in?
4. Do you have the knowledge and experience to handle my tax situation?
5. What are your fees?
6. Do you outsource any of your work? Do you perform the work personally? If not, what is the review process? Who signs the returns?
7. How long, approximately, will it take to finish my taxes?
8. What's your privacy policy? Will you share my tax information with any third-parties?
9. Do you believe I'm paying too much, too little, or just the right amount of tax?

[factor-fiction]

Thank you. I recall you are an experienced trustworthy tax accountant

[jamesbishop911]

How to edit this one? i forgot to add some question. . urrgghhh. .ok, i will put in here.

Any additional tips to add?

[factor-fiction]

You forgot
10. How many hours of annual continuing professional education do you and your staff obtain related to taxation?

Thanks for copying and pasting these for us from here
http://www.chokshicpa.com/faq.htm

[DTCwordfan]

Are you UK based?

Can you handle IRS filings?

What offshore experience do you have?

What's your record on handling criminal activities?

Have you ever been fined for accountancy advice - or sued?

[jamesbishop911]

No factor, i am not a accountant, i was trying to help everyone coz some business owners are having problem in hiring an accountant and ended up regreting. i hope it will help for them.

[jamesbishop911]

is it possible that i will be sued by giving tips?

[jamesbishop911]

i did not copy this to that site factor.

[factor-fiction]

No, but I assume you copied it word for word from another site.
And an identical post to yours has been removed from another site because of 'copywrite issues'. Maybe that's what you are referring to

[1eyedjack]

Not convinced that some of these questions are all that helpful, unless you know how to interpret the answers. For example:
"Q5: What are your fees?"
If he tells you the answer to this question, how would you decide from this information whether he is "an experienced, trustworthy tax accountant"?
At best it will tell you whether he is "a competitive accountant". If he is very experienced, then his charges will be higher than a less experienced accountant. Perhaps a high chargeout rate is a positive indicator here?
"Q9: Do you think I am overpaying/underpaying etc tax"?
This question could be interpreted in two different ways:
"Q9A: For my current circumstances am I calculating the correct tax liability?"
or
"Q9B: Is there some way that I can rearrange my affairs so that my legitimate liability can be reduced?"
There are not subtle distinctions between these two that are wrapped up in your single Q9, but they need to be asked and answered separately for any meaningful conclusion.

To my mind an important omission from the list is personal recommendations from existing clients who are known to you and whose opinion you value.

[Skyline D]

I'm a particular fan of the "Who signs the returns?" question which is possibly the most stupid question I've ever read on here.

I'm not sure that many of these questions would actually help a layman decide anything. It's all very well asking what "licenses or designations" (qualifications) someone has but if you don't know enough to know what any qualification actually means it will tell you nothing even if answered honestly.

[sherrardk]

Bit strange to be answering a question that hasn't been asked.

[Zacs-Master]

And you thought my Seal Noise question was daft!

[tamborine]

A very important question

10. If/When HMRC question drawn up accounts will you support the client or run like hell saying "I can only work from the figures I'm given" ?