<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance,A few months ago, I started looking around for a CPA to do my taxes this year. I have a job that requires me to travel, and I get W-2s for every state I work in, so its a hassle every year to file in a million states. I also got married and my wife worked multiple jobs this year and is a student, so I figured it was finally time to just pay someone else to do my taxes for me. When I looked for a CPA, I checked with the Better Business Bureau, state CPA association. The guy I ended up going with was also a CFP and seemed like a nice enough guy. We met - I asked lots of questions, including how do you charge per hour, per return, etc and how much do you charge? He told me he charges 200hr but that he has a tax preparer who does most of the work and she is only 60hr. He said that an average state and federal return costs about 200. I paid that much with TurboTax last year, so it sounded like a great deal. Skip forward a few months to when I actually got my tax forms. I had everything very neatly filed with tabs for everything so that they could quickly and easily find anything they needed. I also completed a detailed questionnaire that gave them all my relevant life information. Two weeks later, they sent me an email saying my federal return was 8k and that I owed in a couple states, but I was looking to get about 7k back. That sounded great. But they also attached an invoice for 1400, which seems very high. It was itemized to show 1000 for federal and home state and then 150 for to additional states and 100 for another state. At 60hr, that means his tax preparer worked 20 hours on the returns and he reviewed in an hour, presumably--does that sound right? Are these prices normal? I live in a small town in the Midwest if that helps. If not, what do I do? I signed an engagement letter that says I agreed to pay based on an hourly rate. Obviously I can pay it with my refund, but I think that may be what hes counting on--that he can overcharge me because Im getting so much back. Any information or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!  <response>: Im an accountant and accounting services are not cheap you also have to factor in that the 60hour preparer had their stuff reviewed at a higher rate. Less than 200 but probably somewhere in between. When you have a complex return like multiple states it does make a return much more difficult and requires more expenses as filing in different states has a cost to the preparer. To help you understand this most accounting firms software has a fee associated with every return prepared. There might be a set fee for all federal returns and possibly some different fees for each irregular state. All that and you being a new client adds to time and price because inputting all that info takes a decent amount of time. Hope that helps any more info needed let me know. I know our firm doesnt charge less than 800-1000 for a personal return with a schedule C just as an example. 