Beagle wrote:Why do people care so much about what someone else charges?
Simple--it impacts EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL in the profession, current and future. Charge based on your actual value. If you suck, be the cheapest (or better yet, EXIT). If your niche is blue collar, be inexpensive. If your niche is higher net worth or business owners, charge a heck of a lot more!
My MIL uses an EA to prepare her taxes. Out of curiosity, I asked her if she would mind telling me what she paid for her tax prep for 2022. Granted, it is a very basic return and I would have charged my current minimum of $550, but she paid literally half that and thought it was "a lot" despite making $100k. Actually, she paid less than my minimum fee for one return because she also paid for my SIL's tax prep at a little bit less than $275 (my SIL had "maybe" $28k of income from 2-3 jobs that year).
My tax prep fees TY2022 ranged from minimum of $550 to over $7k for an S-Corp that was severely behind. Most fall in the $800-4,800 range, which covers all returns I prepare. Can you imagine a Drake user charging that much? Not based on the survey!
Create value and increase the perceived benefits of your profession. If not, you are ruining it for the ones that do care and absolutely suppressing the market value of our businesses.