For those looking for an accountant

[Steven Hamilton II]

I have to add a bit of a tax season rant so some of you understand. The ideal time to shop for an accountant is November and December.  Not end of January through April. 

Please understand we are incredibly busy this time of year as there are strict deadlines. Some of us will be working 70-90 hours per week. It is one of the reasons I started charging a consultation fee. Many of the phone calls and questions from those were not interested in actually engaging were taking up too much time from my clients who needed or wanted advice. Now I don't have to worry about giving some advice or fully answering a question to "keep them on the hook".

I'm just going to leave this out here. If an accountant has that much time that they are posting constantly during tax season there are concerns. A truly good accountant should not have time to post all day long. 

@Linda Weygant @Natalie Kolodij @jake Hottenrot I know the three of you are also busy. I'm not sure about the rest of you but I know this is my busy season. I'm sorry if I don't have time to get to all of your questions right away but know that I will respond to messages that I'm tagged on. In the mean time there may be some who are building their practice etc. But I know even as I was focused on building mine I still had limited time and I refuse to outsource to anyone outside of my practice because quality matters.  So please be wary of what you find.

To answer some of those price questions here is a link to a national tax feel survey.