$1 For 1065 Prep

[Crank]

New client this year who went to Block last year.  Personal return and 1065.  I pride myself in having lower fees in relation to CPA firms and "Big Box" types like H&R Block.  Now dont misunderstand I do believe I charge a reasonable fee and I am not selling myself short.  I just have much lower overhead and I get a return client where I can bump fees up in coming years as appropriate.

Anyway Block charged $379 for his personal return, my fee is $250.  Not a complicated return at all.  But missing from the Block folder for the 1065 is the fee print out.  On the outside of the folder (like the personal return) is written $1.  $1 for a very simple 1065.  Client seems honest so I hesitate to believe he is lying.  He claims it was the first year he went to Block and doesnt know why they only charged him $1 for the 1065.  Seems way out of line for a 1065 and for Block also.  Anyway I told him that there is no way I can match or beat $1 for a 1065.  I buy corps on pay per return which is $54 each.  He was ok with that.

Im just amazed if Block really did charge him $1 for a 1065.  Anybody ever hear anything like that?

[Lion EA]

Years ago when I was at Block, their proprietary software priced the individual returns for us and there was little we could do to lower the price.  The few workarounds we had got fewer and fewer each year.  But, the entity returns were done on ATX, and we entered in the price ourselves, supposedly from a price list HRB provided.  So, if I wanted to give a client a discount who had both personal and business returns, I had to charge him full price for personal but could enter anything I wanted for the business return from $1 on up so it would show as paid before we transmitted.  (Personally, I think a total of $380 for a partnership and personal return is too cheap.) 

[orygun]

I agree with Lion EA. I worked for HRB up until a year ago and there was very little preparers could do to change prices from what the software generated for individual returns and I often thought prices were too high for the work involved. However, there was more flexibility with others such as business returns and even amended and prior years' individual returns. So probably the preparer just put $1 into the billing program to get the return into the system as a paid return. I have even done that and charged 1¢ and it worked, resulting in what I considered a fair total price for the 2 returns!

[taxxcpa]

I ALWAYS CHARGE $2.00 for a 1065

[Roberts]

I'd probably have charged the fee on the 1065 and $1 for the personal return just so that it could be cleanly deducted on the 1065.