Nothing makes people think of change quite like the New Year. With the culmination of one year and the beginning of the next, it’s quite normal to find ourselves reflecting on all of the things we want to do differently. Gyms see an influx of motivated and eager people on January 2nd, decked out in their workout finest, only to watch numbers dwindle back down by February. While it seems that too often we are resolving to do things in the New Year that we don’t follow through on, certain things we cannot afford to pass off. Doing your taxes is one of them.
Better Than Auto-Tax Programs
While auto-tax programs can take care of the very basics, they generally fail to do anything more. Auto-tax programs do not care how your business does. They don’t care if you succeed or if you fail. They do not recognize your personal challenges and struggles. They do not care. They are not invested in understanding, educating, or empowering you. They are number crunchers. As robots, they have limitations.
Though auto-tax programs, such as Turbotax, can be inexpensive and efficient to gain control for purposes of tax compliance, they are not so for tax planning. In general, most tax experts agree that you should really only use a tax-prep program or app if you are not self-employed and do not own a business. The more complex a financial situation, the less helpful auto-tax programs will likely be. Hiring the right Certified Public Accountant (CPA) however, can make all the difference in the success of your goals.
Requirements for Becoming a Pennsylvania CPA
In order to become a CPA in Pennsylvania, an individual must complete several steps. He or she must obtain a bachelors degree (in any field) as well as 30 graduate degree credits for a total of 150 credit hours. An individual must then sit for the Uniform CPA Exam in Pennsylvania. However, in order for an individual to become eligible to sit for the exam, he or she must complete 24 semester hours in select areas. These subjects include:
- Accounting
- Auditing
- Business Law
- Finance
- Tax
The 30 hours needed after the undergraduate degree must be in the are of either accounting or business. He or she also needs a year of supervised experience, must receive at least 75 percent on each of the four sections of the Uniform CPA Exam, which include Business Environment and Concepts, Auditing and Attestation, Financial Accounting and Reporting, and Regulation. An individual must also work 2,300 full-time hours in order to complete their requirements. Additionally, a CPA must obtain 80 hours of Continuing Professional Education (CPE).
CPA’s Can Ultimately Save You Money
It is clear that CPAs must have a wealth of relevant knowledge. While an auto-tax program will ask relevant questions such as whether you own property, it relies upon the user in order to remember all of the pertinent information in order to best save on your taxes. When you utilize a CPA, he or she is able to ask you questions that may help you to think about things that you might not have otherwise. For example, instead of simply asking you about property, a CPA will ask you about specific types of property. When you must depend upon your own knowledge there is a high probability that you will lose sight of certain things and end up spending more money in the long-run than you may otherwise save with the help of a CPA.
Contact Mazen & Company, LLC
While Calculating Destiny, LLC does not offer tax filing services, we do work with highly qualified and experienced individuals whom we gladly recommend to our clients. If you are in need of a CPA, you would be in great hands with Kenneth Mazen of Mazen & Company, LLC.
With over 44 years of experience serving the community, Ken works with businesses of a variety of sizes – as well as individuals – in order to meet their tax planning and preparation needs. He works as an accountant and advisor, maintaining their records. He is a member of the American Institute of CPA’s, the Pennsylvania Institute of CPA’s, and the Pennsylvania Society of Public Accountants. He specializes in all types of taxation and financial reporting.
You can contact Mazen & Company, LLC at 215-576-1116.
It really helped when you mentioned that a bachelor’s degree is required for starting your career. One of my parent’s friends told us the other day that he was hoping to find a reliable CPA tax service that could help them with tax processing for their business, and he asked if I had any idea what would be the best option to consider. Thank you for the information, I’ll tell him that they can consult a trusted CPA tax service as they can help them with their concerns.