tax preparation fees

[POCAHONTAS]

What are some of the fees a Tax Preparer can legally charge?

[Uncle Sam]

Are you asking for specific $ amounts, or asking for types of charges for services described on a bill?

[POCAHONTAS]

Hi Anyone please?

[POCAHONTAS]

Types of charges for services described on a bill

[Uncle Sam]

There's something I instituted when ACA rules and forms came into effect. The year that a tax return needed to deal with the 1095 forms, and the calculations for premium credits and penalties came into existence, I separately charged a fee for "ACA Compliance Fee", and I'm now doing this as well for any return that involves Form 8867. As soon as I explain to the client what it represents and why, I get no disputes from clients and they readily pay it.

[MDEA]

You can charge any thing you want. I have seen $1000 fees for a simple 1040 with a bank product.

[ATSMAN]

Types of charges for services described on a bill

It really depends on your client base and what the market will bear. Typically for non CPA/Chain Store billings without bank product it runs an average of $150 to $250 in my area. This year with Sec 199A, I believe business returns may garner anything in the range of 10% to 50% bump up.

[Uncle Sam]

So far I've charged a flat fee for the form -whether I have to complete 1 column or all of them.

[TaxGuyBill]

You can charge for almost anything you want.

I think you can't charge for Direct Deposit and those who are subject to Circular 230 (EAs, CPAs, lawyers, etc.) can't charge your fees based on the a percentage of their refund. Otherwise, I think anything else is legal.

[spanel]

You can charge for almost anything you want.

I think you can't charge for Direct Deposit and those who are subject to Circular 230 (EAs, CPAs, lawyers, etc.) can't charge your fees based on the a percentage of their refund. Otherwise, I think anything else is legal.

Tell H&R and JH you cant charge for DD. $40 charge around here for that.

Chris

[Twin Turbo Z]

Hi Anyone please?

Elizabeth ??????

[TaxGuyBill]

Tell H&R and JH you cant charge for DD. $40 charge around here for that.

Chris

I think they charge that fee for taking the payment out of their refund (things go through a third party for that). But they are not allowed to charge for just the Direct Deposit. I don't remember where it is buried in the Code or Regs, but here is an IRS page that says "Providers must never charge a separate fee for Direct Deposit.".

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/refund-returns

[spanel]

I think they charge that fee for taking the payment out of their refund (things go through a third party for that). But they are not allowed to charge for just the Direct Deposit. I don't remember where it is buried in the Code or Regs, but here is an IRS page that says "Providers must never charge a separate fee for Direct Deposit.".

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/refund-returns

Nope. It is above and beyond bank fees. Efile only, if you want it DD, they charge an additional $40.

Chris

[TaxGuyBill]

Nope. It is above and beyond bank fees. Efile only, if you want it DD, they charge an additional $40.

Chris

I'm sorry to doubt you, but I can't imagine them doing that. I know they gouge people with various fees, so maybe they are just charging to e-file?

Revenue Procedure 97-60 (and Publication 1345) prohibits charging for Direct Deposit, so I can't imagine a large chain breaking that rule. They must be charging for something else.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp97-60.pdf#page=18

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp97-60.pdf#page=34

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1345.pdf#page=18

[Dude]

Deducting fees from a refund is kind of tricky considering you are NOT allowed to receive any part of the refund yourself. So this is probably why the temporary bank account created.