New client - would like advice/suggestions

[MariaR08]

Good morning!

So, I have a possible client I'm meeting tonight to go over all info. This is what I've gathered so far from the client:

-has W-2 work (very little) and will be a sch C filer (client is in the adult ent. industry as an actor)
-has separate bus & personal accounts - however, hasn't kept any books at all for the past year (first-time filer, "brand new" so-to-say)

I'll know more details later tonight when we meet... but I wanted to see what you tenure "pros" have as suggestions/advise. Also, any suggestions on a ballpark figure of what I should charge her for going through all her bank statements and transactions for the whole year 2008?

This is what I'm thinking... get there and look through her bank statements for all 2008, approximate how many transactions a month I'll have to sort through and classify, and based on that give her a preliminary estimate of cost (which I have no idea what to base it on)..?

As for a starting point, I'm guessing just start up a simple excel spreadsheet with the main classifications for a sch C filer, and just start putting everything into categories.

Advise/suggestions?

~Maria

[Lion]

Hmmm

One of my colleagues had an evening appointment with a woman in that field. I was told that if his door closed, I was to call his wife!

[MariaR08]

LOL! Well that wouldn't be happening... I'm meeting her tonight and my friend who referred her will be there =)

~maria

[luke]

If she wants to "barter" have her give me a call!

[erchess]

My Thoughts

If she does a Sch C then she has to do a 1040 as well and since you are in LA CA she must be in CA and need a CA return and if she filmed in other states you will want to look into the filing requirements for those states.

I took a quick look at an NATP Fee Study done between last season and this season. The National Mean fee for a Sch C was $73 and for a 1040 134. Even though you are below average in experience and as I recall have pretty much the minimum tax related education and credentialing to legally enter this profession where you are, I would think that you could get by with charging those fees because you are in California where fees run higher than the national average. (If I have mis remembered your training and experience please forgive me. I intend no insult. When I started out in this business I had less training and experience than what I am thinking you have and I have put 15 years in this field and enjoyed most of it. I wouldn't bother to respond to your post if I did not have a high degree of respect for you.) As for States, I would say that California is probably worth 100 and other states range from about 25 to 150. These State prices are a little more than I charge but if anything my personal fees are too low even for my market in Western NC which is lower than yours.

Now these fees would be the only fees you charge a client who comes in prepared to give you the information documents they received from others and their own records in a format that gives you "up front" most of the line entries you make on the return. If you spend very much time going through their records that is often known as "compiling tax information" and you need to set an hourly charge. I would guess that $100 is pretty typical in your area but since you are new and I would guess are not swamped with work you might want to cut back to $75. You also need to decide how much of this is built in to your form fees. I personally don't mind spending up to half an hour going through their stuff. If it takes more than that I want extra money to compensate me for the fact that they are not good book keepers and did not pay me or anyone else to keep their books for them.

[MariaR08]

Erchess,

Thanks so much for the response - I really appreciate it! And yes, I'm a first-year preparer that went on my own from the very beginning. I felt confident about it... plus I have an educational background in Finance and some light tax-related work, so it's not all that alien to me.

Hey, thanks for the tip on other states filing. She (my client) just called to reschedule for Wed so this give me some time to do some more research on the net.

I'm off into the world of net-browsing and taxes!

Thanks again!

~maria

[joanmcq]

I have clients where either I will set them up in a spreadsheet to keep as books, for which I charge by the hour to go through receipts and bank statements. I've also set up clients that are pretty together and shown them how to do the data entry with descriptions of the transactions. Then I can just add categories and do a data sort to get my expense totals. Costs a lot less. I find the spreadsheets really easy to manage, and for a Sch C filer without too many transactions, its an easy way to keep books without Quicken or Quickbooks, etc. A lot harder to screw up than Quickbooks too!

[MariaR08]

Yeah, thanks for that tip!

I might just make a year-long client out of this. She has no time, nor is comp savvy, to keep track of her transactions. I might just propose for me to "keep up her books" throughout the year and that way make it easier at tax time for her, since I'll do her taxes as well =)

p.s. Tried searching on the net with no luck - but does anybody have or know of a good link/site that has common tax deductions/write-offs people in this industry? Or maybe just like a "tax tips" list or something... for an "actor/actress" (so-to-say) - that way I can give my client something to read up on.

~maria