What's a reasonable accountant fee for filing back taxes?

Question

What is a reasonable accountant fee (per year) for filing back taxes?

Answer 1

Depends on what is involved in putting together the tax returns. If you have all your info together for each year, then the cost shouldn't be too much, but if you have no records and no clue what your income and expenses were for the back years then be prepared to pay through the nose.

Answer 2

I would go to a CPA to handle this one. First you will have to file a power of attorney with the CPA so that they are allowed by law to converse with the IRS on your behalf. You will probably have to pay a deposit upfront for each year that they will be filing. Have you been receiving letters from the IRS all these years? Are they telling you that you owe thousands of $$ or are they bugging you to just file? You may not owe back taxes if they are just bugging you to file. That is why they haven't already been knocking at your door. The IRS is more concerned that you "file" your taxes more than if you owe. That's what sent Al Capone to prison, not that he owed taxes, he was found guilty of "Tax Evasion" not filing a return. If the IRS hasn't been sending you letters saying you owe $$$ it could be that you would have been eligible for a refund every year. But if that is the case, you will only get a refund back to 2004 now. Anything before that has been forfeited. If you do owe taxes, the IRS usually only goes back 10 years to collect. First, you need to get current on filing your tax returns. Then if you do owe taxes, you can set up a tax payment plan. If it is an astronomical amount, the CPA may be able to do what is called "an offer in compromise" which means that the IRS will accept a portion of the back taxes and call it even. This is difficult to do depending on your financial situation. If you do owe, then yes, they will put a lien on your credit report and it will stay there until the back taxes are paid. But this is not an uncommon problem, but a capable CPA can handle this for you. This takes time, so be patient. It may take a year or a year and a half or longer for this to get straightened out. Be patient. It will work out in the end. Just take the first step. Ask for referrals from your friends for a CPA. Usually CPA's in a small town charge less than one in a large city, also.

Answer 3

It depends on how complex they are. Most tax preparers based their fee on the complexity of the return.

On the low end, maybe $75-$80 per year up to $600-$700 per year for very complex returns.

We had one client who needed four years of returns done and he was self-employed. It cost him around $1200.

Answer 4

My boyfriend had to file back taxes for several years. If you have several years that you have to deal with, consider going to a place like H & R Block and tell them your situation. They can usually work with you. I paid a private tax attorney $250 to file for one year. H & R Block seems to have a lot of rebates and incentive programs.