Tax CPAs Do Not Review Your Books

Some business owners are relieved because they have a qualified tax CPA filing their returns. Well, I hate to break the bad news, but by design a tax CPA is there to help business owners reduce their tax liability. Tax CPAs generally don’t review the books for accuracy.

So, a business owner believes that their tax CPA is reviewing their books for accuracy, and often this is not the case. This doesn’t mean you should fire your tax CPA. It is not their role or strength in business to review books.

Tax CPAs are also not reponsbile for supporting business owners around their needs to increase profitability, sales growth, cashflow management, or business operations. Often times, a tax CPA left alone can complicate a company’s accounting and legal structure with such one-sided perspective.

Even though we have accounting talent that can both keep the books and file tax returns, we still recommend that the bookkeeping/accounting function and tax preparer function be performed by two separate professionals whenever possible.