T2 friends discount

1

HI
I am preparing some T2 returns for family friends/ neighbours. I have given discount in past and want to review. Do you give a discount and what %?
thanks

2

Family must pay with wine. Two or three decent reds for personal return, couple of cases for corporate.

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3

@jimit Perfect answer!

Personally, with friends and family, for me is a case by case scenario. My staff are also granted a certain number of T1 returns for free (if filed prior to April 15th) and small discounts on all other services.

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4

what is a small discount
& what about T2’s.
i will prepare family T1’s for free if received by March 31.

5

Maybe 10-15%? Although I have gone up to 50% for family/friends with limited incomes or submitting a whole family of returns. But I do track the dollar value of discounts that I have given each year. This tax season was actually less discounts than prior year, although the number of returns was higher. What do you feel comfortable with? What costs (software, CRM, signatures etc) do you need to have covered? Are you preparing the returns or is staff?

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6

This - mostly. I don’t care when I receive stuff as long as it isn’t late…and my bookkeeper (who’s put up with my shenanigans for 35 years now) gets a special exemption for herself and her family…although we also often go out for wonderful meals and wine together - on her kids’ dimes. :slight_smile:

My kids and their spouses are free – as are my wife’s kids and spouses. I’ll discount by about 50% corps, only because the software (looking at you TC!) is so fricking expensive.

7

My daughters and son-in-law receive invoices for XXX OOO XXX OOO XXX OOO XXX OOO XXX across one line of the invoice.

One daughter is now paying me with Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses, followed by actual hugs and kisses. I love BOTH options.

hug_kiss

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8

love your payment method :slight_smile:

9

Isn’t that kind of personal? I mean, everybody has their own way of dealing with such things, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Are you trying to establish your discount based on “what most tax preparers do”? Why bother? You can give whatever discount you want. Or is that your friends/family expect you to do it for free, and you need to justify the amount that is NOT discounted? LOL :wink:

10

Please don’t feel like you have to answer - if too personal.
i was reviewing my strategy and times have shifted and i was just curious. thought i would ask the community because ‘my wall’ didn’t have an opinion.
thanks

11

I do immediately family for free… and I give discounts as I feel warranted… some family and friends who may be in a bad situation and whom do not have a lot of funds will get a deeper discount or free. Others whom are coming to me because they know me but would otherwise have paid full price elsewhere… may or may not get a discount. A lot depends on scope of work and the individual situation.

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12

Sorry, I didn’t mean, “it’s TOO personal”. I meant, it’s your personal choice, so what’s the use in asking anybody else? Why would you base your discount on what anyone else does?

13

Curiosity.

14

You base your discount on curiosity? That’s curious… :laughing: :laughing:

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15

T1: My family is free, staff are free, staff families are generally free assuming that the staff member does most of the work and all I have to do is a quick review. If they started getting very complicated we’d renegotiate.

T2: my parents/children are free, my siblings are 50%, which basically pays for the staff time and a bit of overhead, but I don’t get paid for them. If I had staff with family that needed T2 returns we’d have to negotiate that. I’d have to get paid something for my time, but I’d probably discount the staff member’s own time. IDK, it hasn’t come up yet.

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16

thank you, i appreciate it.

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17

I only do t1 returns but my policy is my siblings and nieces/nephews are free any other family (I have a large Dutch family) the fee is discounted to $50. It keeps it “fair” to have a tiered discount.

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18

I do my siblings, parents, and kids T1’s for free. They don’t have any T2’s, so it’s not an issue. Cousins, etc. I give a small discount to, depending on relationship, including T2’s. It ranges from 10% to 25%. I have no staff, so it’s only me doing these.

Edit: I teach my kids to do theirs, but so far only my son is confident enough to do his. All four are teenagers, ranging from 16 to 19.

19

@johanus My kids can do their own as well and I have drafted them into being tax assistants the past 3 years. They are getting quite good at it. They started tax prep of the very simple tax returns at age 11 for my daughter and 12 for my son…

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20

I love that. I didn’t do my own taxes until I was a qualified CA with my own practice! My (CA) dad always did mine growing up. And then the firm I articled with wanted $25 or 50 (I can’t remember it was 20 years ago, lol) for me to file my own return in their system. but dad would still do it for free, so… Of course I paid him back by doing his returns after he wasn’t able to do them anymore, so it all works out even in the end :smiley:

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