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I help my mom and sister for free, though my mom will occasionally buy me things from my Amazon wish list as a thank you. Otherwise I tell people I’m too busy at work, and I don’t want to think about work during my downtime. If they ignore that, I either start asking them for a lot of freebies, ignore their calls/texts until the next day when they have already googled it, or I teach them about ChatGPT. It depends on my mood.
You don't. You answer the first couple of questions for free. After that mention you are starting a service and taking on clients.
I do my parents, mother in law and kids for free. I have no problem with that since they are all really easy returns. I have been asked by siblings and brother in law and told them no. I will answer a quick question but won’t do their returns.
I tell people their question is complicated and I don’t know without diving into a great level of detail. Which is really the truth with most things in tax. “It depends”.
Yes, this. I would say something like the rules are constantly changing and I would need to research that.
I handle Mom's taxes and anything bill related, and answer questions from my family (sister and a few cousins). I draw the line at doing taxes for anyone beyond mom. I will help friends with basic questions, if I know the answer or can get it quickly, and I sometimes help them understand legal documents. Beyond that, they can hire a professional.
I charge my family members
Savage 🤣
I tell people advice is free unless I need to do any research, then its my job and I tell them my rates. It works for me.
I had the same issues. I just started explaining to people that I wasn’t giving out advice anymore because I ran into some issues doing that
It was a lie. I never ran into any isssues. The issue was that it was effing annoying helping everyone without getting anything in return
It went smth like this “hey, so I actually had to stop giving people tax and accounting advice. I also stopped preparing taxes outside of work. It was hurting my performance and I was getting burned out.”
They usually won’t push back on that and if they do. Tell them to set up a meeting with ur firms partner. And give them ur partners card
No free work
Pro
I only help my parents. I did help others in years past but for a reasonable fee.
I will take calls from close family. I don’t do anyone else’s return. They know how busy I am and can’t add to my plate. I give vague advice to friends and they sort of give up. I also do more corporate tax so I use that as an excuse and don’t know all the individual rules and intricacies.
I tell them I don't do taxes. I don't. I'm in audit. I do help my immediate family and will do a little research, when necessary, but everyone else just gets told that I don't do taxes. (If I did do taxes, I feel like I'd be happy answer one-off questions that I knew off the top of my head, but everyone else would get told it requires research that I don't have time to do.)
I don’t even do my own taxes, so no way am I helping anyone. Funny enough no one has ever asked me - most people are interested to know what type of work I do 😂
Need to buy me food or something
I do my mom’s for free, that’s it. Everyone else gets “I’m a CPA, but I do audits. You wouldn’t go to an orthopedic surgeon doctor for heart surgery, yet?” End of conversation.
You don't tell them to take a hike. You sit down and offer to come up with the plan and do their monthly bookkeeping for them and tax planning and tax return. It's a business opportunity take advantage of it.
I just say here some things to consider. But I would recommend running it by your accountant.
Tell them to call the office and you would be happy to prepare their return and answer their questions. Then tell them what it would cost.