"How Much Do You Charge to Do Taxes?"

The short answer to the question of how much Pronto Income Tax charges to prepare tax returns is:

Way less than everybody else!!!

If you don't believe us, read this article that shows the average price for tax preparation for the most recent tax season which shows that the average tax preparation fee at "those other places" is right around $200. The average price for tax preparation at Pronto Income Tax during the most recent tax season? Right around $100.

Yes indeed, our Pronto Clients regularly and consistently save $50-$200 on tax preparation, every single year.

We don't just beat the competition's prices, we CRUSH the competition's prices, every single year.

Oh and remember, too, that just because we're relatively cheap doesn't mean we don't have a great staff of experienced tax preparers because we do have that.

How Pronto Income Tax Prices Are Calculated

So far, as you may have noticed, we have not really given you a "straight answer" to your question of how much we charge to do taxes--the reason we haven't done this yet is not because we are shameless weasels, only that it is very difficult to tell you what your price will be without seeing your situation.

Some tax returns are very simple to prepare, some are very complex. Some take 10 minutes, some take 10 hours. Some can be done by a first year tax preparer who has only gone through basic training, some must be done by an experienced tax professional who has studied taxes for many years.

In order to give you an exact price quote, we need to see your paperwork and find out what kind of tax preparation service you need. That being said, we are happy on this page to give you an idea of what you can expect to pay for tax preparation at Pronto Income Tax.

The basic concept to realize for you as a client is that our fees are primarily based on the forms that we fill out. Your price will vary, then, depending on what forms we fill out on your tax return. This is a very common pricing method in the tax preparation industry and it is the one that we primarily use to determine our prices.

Our price for a basic "short form" is $80; this would be a 1040 tax return that uses the standard deduction with maybe one or two other small things such as student loan interest or an IRA deduction. To get this price, it does not necessarily have to be a 1040EZ, it just would be a simple and straightforward 1040 tax return that a Pronto preparer can do in 15-20 minutes.

Our price for a basic "long form" with Itemized Deductions on Schedule A, for example if you are a homeowner and use your mortage interest as a deduction, is $130. According to a study by the National Society of Accountants, the average fee for a tax return using Schedule A, Itemized Deductions was $229 last tax season--so as you can see, we are ready to beat the competition's prices by more than $100 every single Schedule A tax return that we prepare.

In this economy, we know that every single dollar counts and that's why we work so hard to keep our prices for tax preparation the most affordable in the industry bar none and that's why we take joy in consistently and mercilessly beating the competition's prices by $50-$200 per tax return.

Also please note that all of our quoted always include both federal and state tax return preparation, electronic filing, and direct deposit of your tax refunds directly to your bank account.

In addition, please also note  that we are open all year in case you have any questions or problems, and we often charge very little or nothing for our off-season services to existing tax clients.

Additional Forms Incur Additional Fees

If you have additional forms that need to be filled out, we charge additional fees based on those forms.

Common forms and prices for tax year 2011 include:

• Earned Income Credit: $25
  
• Additional Child Tax Credit: $15
• Schedule C (Business Income): $60
• Schedule D (Capital Gains and Losses): $40
  
• Education Credit: $25
• Child Care Credit: $25

If you want to calculate your price ahead of time and you have one or more of these forms, simply add the form prices onto the regular short form or long form price quoted above. We do reserve the right to charge more for these forms if they are particularly complex, but in most cases, the standard form charges are what we charge.

So for example, a short form (standard deduction) with an Earned Income Credit would be $75 + $25 = $100, including both the federal and state tax returns, electronic filing, and direct deposit of your federal and state refunds to your bank account.

For another example, if you use the Schedule A, Itemized Deductions form because you are a homeowner, and you also are a business owner who uses Schedule C, Business Income, you can expect to pay $125 + $60 = $185, including both the federal and state tax returns, electronic filing, and direct deposit of your federal and state refunds to your bank account.

For a third example, if you use Schedule C, receive Earned Income Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit, and use Schedule D for some stock trades made during the year, you can expect to pay $75 (short form base price) + $60 + $15 + $40 = $190, including both the federal and state tax returns, electronic filing, and direct deposit of your federal and state refunds to your bank account.

So this should show you more or less what you can expect. Once again, we would encourage you to shop around, we can assure you that these prices are among the lowest in the tax preparation business.

Although you may see a lot of talk about "free tax preparation," we can assure you that the vast majority of this talk is complete hot air. Usually they trick you just to get you in the door, then they charge you a lot more than free. Here at Pronto, we do not participate in these kind of gimmicks, we just give the best prices year after year.

Certainly you will not find someone doing taxes for "free" who is willing to stand behind their work all year round like we do at Pronto.

Discounts Available?

Generally speaking, we cannot give discounts because our prices are already so severely discounted relative to the competition. However, our tax preparers are authorized to give OCCASIONAL discounts based on client needs.

For example, we have been giving some discounts to military families to thank them for their service, also to clients suffering from long-term unemployment, also to senior citizens who are on a fixed income, also for a long-time client who has had a "bad year," and last but not least for those starving students out there.

We know that these are difficult economic times and we want to do everything we can to fit into your budget. We do not believe that people should have to pay hundreds of dollars just to do their taxes if at all possible, it just has never seemed right to our owner Kent Frye to charge the kinds of prices that other tax places charge.

At the same time, we hope you understand that we wouldn't be doing any clients any favors if we went out of business giving out too many discounts when our prices are already so discounted relative to the competition. Our tax preparers work on commission and need to make a living, so please don't ask for discounts, it just makes things uncomfortable.

Instead, give yourself a discount by referring a friend to Pronto and being paid $20 for every new client you send us!

Our Prices Are Matched to the Local Areas that We Serve

One other thing to know is that, as part of our dedication to become "Your Neighborhood Tax Pros," our pricing strategy may, in some cases, be adjusted from office to office due to local neighborhood conditions.

In other words, we try to fit our prices into the lives of the people that we serve and the competition that we face in the local marketplace.

Time Is Money and So Is Expertise

We spend all year preparing for tax season, building up the knowledge required to provide you with extraordinary service at tax time.

This is why we ALWAYS reserve the right to charge for our time if your tax situation requires more time or expertise than our standard fees indicate. If you call our office and we say that it costs $40 for a Schedule D form, and then you show up with 100 stock trades that we have to itemize every single one of them on Schedule D, you can expect that you will pay more than somene who has a Schedule D form with only one or two stock trades.

Likewise, if you have a complex Schedule C business form that takes more than one hour to complete and requires extensive expertise and advice, you can expect to pay more than the standard Schedule C fee. We do not abuse this privilege, but we do reserve the right to charge more based on additional time and/or expertise.

Moreover, our senior tax preparers may choose to charge more than our junior tax preparers, due to their increased experience and expertise. Expertise, after all, is a form of time because it takes much study and experience before a tax preparer can become a true expert.

Affordable Price Tax Prep Is Great, But Service Is What Really Matters

As you can hopefully see by now, we definitely want to give you more than you pay for when you pay for Pronto tax preparation.

However, ultimately we are not looking to compete and earn your business through price. We are looking to compete and earn your business on service.

Yes, getting a good price on tax preparation is great service: personal service, expert tax preparers who study all year to do this job, and all that good stuff--this is what are really going for!

How Can You Get a Lower Price on Pronto Tax Preparation?

Last but not least, we want you to meet the most important person in keeping Pronto prices for tax preparation so notoriously affordable:

YOU.

You can help keep your fee as budget-friendly as possible by being organized when you come to do your taxes and, more importantly, by REFERRING FRIENDS AND FAMILY. We are a "volume business," meaning that the more clients we have, the less we can charge each client--that's our story and we're sticking to it.

Help keep Pronto fees low by telling a friend about the affordable tax preparation fees and more importantly the dependable service at Pronto Income Tax!

Since we are now paying you $20 for every new client that you refer to us, you can give yourself a $40 discount just by telling two friends to go to Pronto.