Questions to Ask Your CPA
Questions for a meeting with your accountant, whether you are hiring one or reviewing a return you have already paid for. They cover fees and scope, filing mechanics, record-keeping, and the decisions worth a phone call before you make them.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What does your fee cover, and what would count as extra work?
Why ask it
Ask before the engagement letter is signed. A clear answer separates return preparation from bookkeeping, planning calls, notices, and amended returns; a vague one is how people end up surprised by an invoice in April.
Will you be preparing my return yourself, or someone else in the firm?
Why ask it
Work is often passed to a junior preparer with a partner reviewing. That is normal, but you want to know who to call in August and whether the person you are impressed by will actually see your file.
What do you need from me, and by when, to file on time?
Why ask it
You are asking for a list and a date. If neither arrives, expect an extension every year, because the delay in most late returns is missing client documents rather than the preparer's workload.
Looking at last year's return, is there anything you would have done differently?
Why ask it
A prepared accountant will name something specific: a missed election, a misclassified expense, a deduction taken the harder way. If the answer is that it all looks fine, they probably have not read it closely.
Which items on my return are the most likely to draw questions?
Why ask it
Every return has a soft spot, often a home office, vehicle use, meals, or a loss on a side business. Knowing which one it is tells you where to keep the documentation tight rather than keeping everything equally badly.
Am I paying enough through withholding or estimated payments, or am I heading for a penalty?
Why ask it
Underpayment penalties are usually avoidable and mostly hit people whose income changed mid-year. Ask for the number you should be paying and the dates, in writing, rather than a reassurance.
If I were audited on this return, what would you want to be able to show?
Why ask it
This reframes record-keeping around evidence instead of habit. The answer should be concrete: mileage logs, receipts above a certain size, contemporaneous notes, bank statements matching the ledger.
Which records should I keep, for how long, and what can I get rid of?
Why ask it
Most people keep either everything or nothing. Ask specifically about property and investment purchase records, which need to survive far longer than a normal return file because they establish what you paid.
Is the way my work is structured still right for what I now earn?
Why ask it
Sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation: the sensible answer changes as income changes, and nothing triggers a review automatically. Ask what a switch would cost to set up and run, not only what it would save, because the filing and payroll obligations come with it.
What changes on my taxes because of what happened this year?
Why ask it
Say the events out loud: a marriage, a birth, a house, a layoff, an inheritance, a move between states. Accountants cannot ask about what they do not know, and most missed opportunities are missed for exactly that reason rather than through any lack of skill.
I worked in more than one state this year. What do I owe, and where?
Why ask it
Remote work across state lines creates filing obligations that surprise people, and the rules differ by state. You want a list of returns to file and an explanation of how credits stop you paying twice on the same income.
How do this year's investment sales and dividends affect what I owe?
Why ask it
Ask before December, not in March, because most of the available adjustments have to happen before the year closes. A good answer covers holding periods, offsetting losses, and which accounts the activity happened in.
Am I putting money into my retirement accounts in the most sensible order?
Why ask it
Between employer plans, personal accounts, and any catch-up provisions you qualify for, the sequence matters as much as the total. Ask what you are leaving unused, and what the deadlines for each are.
What's my marginal rate compared with my effective rate, and which should I use when making decisions?
Why ask it
People routinely make choices about extra work, charitable giving, or asset sales using the wrong one of these two numbers. Getting both, in figures, is more useful than a general strategy discussion.
If a notice arrives from the IRS or the state, what should I do first, and will you deal with it?
Why ask it
Establish the answer while nothing is wrong. Notices carry response deadlines, and the worst outcome is a letter sitting on a counter for three weeks because nobody was sure whose job it was.
Do you represent clients in audits and examinations, and is that inside our arrangement or billed separately?
Why ask it
Preparation and representation are different services, and not every preparer does both. Find out now, because switching accountants in the middle of an examination is expensive and slow.
What's the most common mistake you see from clients in my situation?
Why ask it
This gets you the pattern from hundreds of returns rather than only yours. Answers tend to be dull and practical: mixing personal and business accounts, no mileage record, missed quarterly payments.
Which decisions should I call you about before I make them rather than after?
Why ask it
The point of an accountant is prevention, and most costly tax outcomes are locked in at the moment of a sale, a hire, or a withdrawal. Ask for the specific list and keep it somewhere you will see it.
What would you need from me to give better advice than you can give right now?
Why ask it
An honest answer is usually about your bookkeeping: cleaner records, earlier documents, a conversation in the autumn instead of the spring. It also tells you whether they want that relationship or just the return.
How do you prefer to be reached outside filing season, and what's a realistic response time?
Why ask it
Availability between February and April tells you nothing about availability in July. Agree the channel and the expectation now so a mid-year question does not sit unanswered.
Getting a useful meeting
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the meeting
Send documents in advance, not on the day
An accountant reading your paperwork for the first time while you sit opposite them will spend the hour on data entry. Prior-year returns, income statements, and any notices should arrive several days ahead so the meeting can be about decisions.
Write down what changed this year
Marriage, divorce, a birth, a house, a move between states, a new side income, a large medical year, an inheritance, shares sold. This one page drives most of the advice you will get.
Bring the questions in priority order
Meetings run out of time in the wrong place. Put fees, scope, and anything with a deadline first, and leave general planning conversation for the end.
How to judge the answers
- Specific figures and dates rather than general reassurance: the estimated payment amount, the filing deadline, the retirement contribution limit that applies to you.
- A willingness to say "I would need to check that," which is a better sign than instant confidence on an unusual question.
- Clear separation of what is settled law from what is a judgement call, and an explanation of which side of the line your deductions sit on.
- Advice that fits your actual income and complexity, not a strategy that only pays off at several times your earnings.
- Answers in writing when money depends on them, especially payment amounts, deadlines, and anything about a notice.
Between filing seasons
The useful conversation happens in the autumn
By the time a return is being prepared, the year is closed and most choices have already been made. One call before the year ends is worth more than any amount of discussion in the spring.
Keep the purchase records separate
What you paid for a house, shares, or equipment determines the tax when you sell, which may be decades later. Store those documents somewhere different from the annual pile you eventually discard.
Read the return before you sign it
You remain responsible for what it says, whoever prepared it. Check the things that are easy to get wrong: spelling of names, Social Security numbers, dependents claimed, and the account details a refund will be sent to. Ask about any figure you do not recognise.