Cost Per Return to Electronically File

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#1
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So my (unnamed relative) continues to school me. They asked me to look over their (super simple) Form 1040 (with no other forms besides 8869). It was perfect.

The price was $55 for the federal return….which included $5 electronic filing fee. They used Intuit.
Hooooow is their filing fee so low? Yes, yes spread software cost across customers, unlimited federal. Still. I’m having to charge my customers more than $5 to file. Thoughts?
 

#2
HowardS  
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8869...Qsub election?
Regarding efile cost, you can't compete on cost alone with volume providers unless you too are a volume provider. The basic returns are loss leaders.
Retired, no salvage value.
 

#3
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Maybe they just prepared the return on turbo tax, although they should not have. This doesn’t sound like a professional preparer for that price.
 

#4
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Don't let it bother you to where you start to second guess yourself, your business plan, or your rates.

Our minimum fee for a 1040 "family" type return (no Schedule C) is $550 and our book is full (Hawaii - so things are admittedly expensive here).

You are obviously "better" in many ways than a preparer who charges $60 and you should charge for being "better" accordingly.
 

#5
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Treetopclimes wrote:Thoughts?


Delete the efile fee line item from your invoices, round it up to the nearest $10, then internalize that fee into the main fee.

I don't see any reason to put this on a separate line item and allow clients to scrutinize it.

When you really think about it, what percentage of clients, if any, are hiring you primarily because your efile fee is competitive? Probably none. Presumably the value a CPA provides far exceeds some immaterial variation in efile fees.
 

#6
sjrcpa  
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I thought we weren't allowed to charge a separate fee for efiling. Of course, it's baked into the overall fee.
 

#7
CathysTaxes  
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sjrcpa wrote:I thought we weren't allowed to charge a separate fee for efiling. Of course, it's baked into the overall fee.

No but if you charge by form then you have your charge for e-filing.
Cathy
CathysTaxes
 

#8
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+1 on baking it into the price.

I stopped providing breakdowns a while ago because it causes trouble sometimes and it was not worth the "value" I thought it might have conveyed.
 

#9
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I include e-filing fees in the general price and if they don't want to efile I will charge an additional fee for that. Then again I don't think I've had someone want to file on paper in at least a decade.

CathysTaxes wrote:
sjrcpa wrote:I thought we weren't allowed to charge a separate fee for efiling. Of course, it's baked into the overall fee.

No but if you charge by form then you have your charge for e-filing.


For whatever reason, I was under the impression that you cannot charge separately for eFiling, Form 8879, or Form 8888.
 

#10
MikeH  
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Not to gloat, but Drake doesn't charge to efile.
Mike Hartfield
Bullhead City, Arizona
Cell: 818/433-5359
 

#11
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MikeH wrote:Not to gloat, but Drake doesn't charge to efile.


Or, like recommended above and the way many of us handle it for our clients, they do, they just don't separately state it on any invoices.
 

#12
ATSMAN  
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Most tax prep software if it does not separately charge for e-file include that cost in the base pricing. I like that. Some software like TaxAct will show the base pricing and then a per return e-file charge. You have to do the math based on your volume to see if a per return charge or unlimited makes sense.

I can tell you this tax season I only had to file one return on paper. Everything else was e-file. I like the unlimited return option based on my volume.
 

#13
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ATSMAN wrote:Most tax prep software if it does not separately charge for e-file include that cost in the base pricing. I like that. Some software like TaxAct will show the base pricing and then a per return e-file charge. You have to do the math based on your volume to see if a per return charge or unlimited makes sense.

I can tell you this tax season I only had to file one return on paper. Everything else was e-file. I like the unlimited return option based on my volume.


When I used UltraTax I had to pay $1,000 for unlimited e-filing for individuals and another $1,000 for business returns. But it was cheaper than per return based on our volume.

I don’t pay anything separately to e-file thru Axcess. I’m sure it’s buried in the base cost.
 


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