tax question?

Question

I have a small business, only one employee(me). My taxes are as simple as it gets and I have done most of the part. But, last year, I was late paying the quarterly taxes for 2nd qtr. I have paid extra in the third quarter. My questions are:

would I be paying penalty for that?
what is the postion that is right below accountant. I know it's not bookkeepr. Usually people who don't pass the exam for CPA become this. They are cheaper and can do mostly everything a CPA can. I want to hire one of those since my taxes are fairly simple and a CPA is going to charge me anywhere between 400-600 bucks. Does anyone know what that postion is?

Answer 1

The position below CPA is just Accountant.

If your taxes are pretty simple and you don't want to pay an arm or a leg you can go to H&R Block or find an Enrolled Agent.

To go to an unlicensed, uncertified accountant is asking for trouble. A CPA, EA (Enrolled Agent) or companies like H&R can be held liable if they did something illegal in the processing of your taxes. An accountant who is not certified has NO liability so can royally screw you over with the IRS and they will NOT be held accountable.

Protect yourself and hire at least some form of "expert".

Answer 2

If you are late paying a quarterly estimate for one quarter, you may be assessed a small penalty, from the time the payment was originally due (April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15) up to when you caught up with the payment.

As for the position you are enquiring about, it is simply termed an accountant, or in your case, a tax preparer. Tax preparation is a "specialty" that not all accountants do. If you look at public accounting (the Big 4 firms like E&Y, PWC, etc.), their accountants are either in tax or audit. Auditors do not do tax work, and as such, won't have the expertise to prepare a tax return, even though they may be CPA's and even though they are still called accountants. In the corporate world, a A/P accountant (accounts payable), A/R accountant (accounts receivable), and even a G/L accountant (general ledger) are all called accountants, but they won't have the knowledge to prepare tax returns. Similarly, a tax accountant, who has knowledge of tax returns, may not necessarily have the knowledge in order to do general ledger entries, etc. outside of the knowledge they gained in their Accounting 1A and 1B classes they took in college.

The term accountant is interchangeable, like the term doctor. In school, they learn basic knowledge in all aspects of accounting, like doctors learn basic knowledge in all aspects of medicine. Once they are out of school, then they concentrate on one area, much like a doctor may specialize in internal medicine, opthamology, surgery, cardiology.

Answer 3

Being late paying quarterly taxes won't penalize you as long as you had them paid on time by the end of the year. Quarterly estimates help reduce the burden of taxes at the end of the year.

Answer 4

H&R Block can help you.