Understanding accountant fees for a corporate tax return can be tricky. When you get your invoice, you may be wondering what you could have done to reduce your accountant fees for the corporate tax return, or what causes corporate tax return accounting fees to be higher or lower. We’ve compiled some key factors that can help reduce accounting fees for a corporate tax return. 

Here’s five great ways to reduce accountant fees for your business’ corporate tax return.

1. Ensure Your Banking Account is Business-Only

One important factor in reducing your accounting fees is ensuring that your business bank account is used only for business purposes. When you mix business expenses with personal expenses, it can result in higher accounting fees. Your accountant or bookkeeper will need to go through every statement transaction by transaction to remove all personal expenses, as those are not deductible for tax purposes. This is a lot of work and can be incredibly time consuming, especially if your accountant has to confirm every expense with you, one by one. When you ensure that your business’ bank account is only used for business expenses, you save your accountant a lot of time, and as such reduce your accounting fees for your corporate tax return. 

2. Using QuickBooks Online or Other Electronic Bookkeeping Resources

When you use a third party automated bookkeeping service like QuickBooks, it increases your bookkeeping’s accuracy and comprehensiveness. These platforms also increase the speed in which an accountant can go through your books and fully understand your business’ accounting and corporate tax return needs. Using QuickBooks and the like can really reduce the time an accountant needs to spend on your bookkeeping and corporate tax return, which will lead to reduced accounting fees.

3. Keep Your Documents Organized

Make sure that all your receipts and supporting expense documents are stored in an organized manner, the more simplified the better. When all your receipts are thrown into a shoebox or shopping bag it can greatly increase the cost of your accounting fees. This is because your expense reports and bookkeeping documents sometimes need to be verified with receipts, invoices, etc. Keeping your supporting financial documents organized will greatly reduce the time it takes your accountant to find and verify each expense, as such having organized supporting documents can reduce your accounting fees.

4. Hire a Professional Bookkeeper Throughout the Year

When you use professional bookkeeping services throughout the year, this greatly reduces the amount of time an accountant spends on your case. When all the accountant needs to do is the calculations and input of accounting data, rather than bookkeeping, verifying data, and sifting through papers, your accounting fees will be greatly reduced, plus your corporate tax return will be completed faster. When you already have your bookkeeping in order and the data clearly organized for your accountant, you leave your accountant to do the job they are best at, filing your taxes!

5. Ask Your Accountant for Next Year

You may not be able to fix anything at the time, but after you receive your invoice for accounting fees, a great way to ensure you can reduce the time and money it takes to get your corporate tax return is simply by asking your accountant! At Gallo LLP, our accountants would be happy to answer any questions you may have about your invoice and provide you with strategies to improve your yearly bookkeeping and reduce your accounting fees. Simply ask your accountant if there is anything you can implement in your business to reduce your accounting fees. 

Gallo LLP Chartered Professional Accountants is your trusted Edmonton accounting firm. We perform corporate accounting and will help you get the absolute best corporate tax return. Contact us today to start winning with your business’ finances. At Gallo LLP, we help you take your business to the next level.