As a Fort Worth business owner I’m wondering if I need a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Gregory S. Simpson is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and founder of Gregory S. Simpson and Associates P.C., a Public Accounting firm located in the suburbs of Fort Worth in North Richland Hills, TX. Gregory S. Simpson and Associates P.C., specializes in accounting work, tax consulting and business and individual tax returns.  Greg has over 40 years of accounting experience and over 30 years as a professional Certified Public Accountant. He answers questions from time to time for the residents of Fort Worth on tax related issues.  

Question: As a Fort Worth business owner I'm wondering if I need a Certified Public Accountant?


Answer: If you own an existing business or even if you are planning to start-up a business in Texas the odds are you’ll need a Certified Public Accountant. It doesn’t matter if it’s a T-shirt business starting out of your garage or a manufacturing company located in downtown Fort Worth. “Do I need a Certified Public Accountant?” is the question that every business owner will ask at some stage or another during the life cycle of their business. From the day you setup a business whether it is a sole-proprietorship or a corporation or something in-between you will encounter and need to comply with tax and governmental regulations concerning your business. If you can find and develop a relationship with a Certified Public Accountant in the early stages of your business rather than the later stages, she/he should be able to aid in the growth and prosperity of your business.

 A Certified Public Accountant is a professional, who is skilled and continually trained in a multitude of ever changing laws and regulations governed by federal and state legislator. Of course the most important of these governing bodies and the one which is on the minds of many business owners is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A Certified Public Accountant who performs your business taxes is qualified to represent you in the event a tax review occurs between your business and the IRS. The reason for this is that a Certified Public Accountant is someone who must adhere to a code of ethics set by the state they are certified and practice in. In our case this is the Texas State Board of Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A Certified Public Accountant can help you avoid pitfalls during the inception of your business and he can navigate you through difficult decision as your business grows.  This ultimately helps you save money now and in the future by allowing you to focus on the operational issues instead of the changing tax and compliance issues related to your business.

In my professional experience, I have seen many business clients who believe they do not need a Certified Public Accountant weave themselves into a tangled web of trouble; only to incur a much greater cost to untangle their troubles down the road.  To give a small window into how the knowledge and experience of a Certified Public Accountant can help your business, I have described a case below in which a client of mine, a Fort Worth resident, who ended up starting a small website design business, was originally thinking of setting up a partnership. However, after I sat down with the prospective business owner and asked him some important questions. He realized that if he went forward with setting up a partnership the profits earned by the partnership and the percentage of profits passed through to him would be subject to Self-Employment tax. If he elected to setup an S Corporation, profits passed through to owner(s) are not subject to Self-Employment tax and the owner(s) would be insulated from liability more so than a partnership.  In addition, the S Corporation would have a perpetual life so that if his business performed well and endured the cyclical ups and downs of the future, he could eventually leave this productive business to his eldest son to manage after he retires.

I hope this answered your question about if you need a Certified Public Accountant.

For more information about the role a Certified Public Accountant can play in your business or other questions and advice, please contact us, Gregory S. Simpson & Associates P.C., at 817-656-3397or by e-mail at admin@gregoryssimpson.com.