University City CPAs for Small Business and Professional Practices

University City is a different kind of St. Louis suburb. You have Wash U faculty and grad students, professional service firms tucked along Delmar, restaurants and independent retail in the Loop, and homeowners who have been there for decades. The accounting needs across that mix run wider than most CPA firms are built for.

Thompson Flaherty is an Illinois and Missouri-licensed CPA firm headquartered in the Metro East. We work with University City small business owners, professional practices, and families who want a year-round CPA, not a once-a-year tax preparer. To talk through what your business needs, get in touch with our team.

Areas of University City We Serve

We work with clients across University City and the immediate surrounding towns: the Loop, Parkview, University Heights, the area north of Olive, Clayton just to the south, Richmond Heights and Olivette to the west. Most of the work is virtual, so the address on the file matters less than what the business needs.

What a University City CPA Costs

University City pricing is in line with the broader St. Louis market. Solo tax return work for an LLC or S-corp runs roughly $1,200 to $3,000. Monthly bookkeeping for a small business is typically $400 to $1,500 a month depending on transaction volume. A year-round CPA relationship with bookkeeping, tax strategy, and quarterly check-ins lands most clients between $1,200 and $3,000 a month, all-in. We will quote a real number after a 30-minute intro call.

Missouri Tax Issues University City Owners Run Into Most

Missouri caps the personal income tax at 4.7% as of 2024, with brackets adjusted annually. For University City businesses with employees, the bigger items are St. Louis County earnings tax exposure if the business has city of St. Louis employees, Missouri’s Pass-Through Entity Tax election (similar but not identical to the Illinois PTE), and the nuances around sales tax for the food, retail, and professional service mix that dominates the Loop. We work the Missouri Department of Revenue rules into every Missouri return.

Bookkeeping, Accounting, and CFO Work — What U City Owners Need

Bookkeeping is the day-to-day record. Accounting is the cleanup and interpretation. CFO work is the strategy layer. Most University City small businesses past $250,000 in revenue need monthly bookkeeping. The ones past $1M usually start to need CFO-level support. Our accounting and bookkeeping services cover the full stack.

Industries We Work With in University City

Professional service firms (architects, attorneys, designers, consultants), independent restaurants and Loop retail, healthcare and dental practices, and small e-commerce. We are a generalist firm by design, which means a single CPA who actually knows your business across the tax, bookkeeping, and advisory work.

How to Start With Thompson Flaherty

The intro call is no cost and roughly 30 minutes. We talk through where your business sits, what is working with your current CPA setup (if anything), and whether Thompson Flaherty is the right firm. If we are, we quote the engagement on the call. Schedule that here.

Related St. Louis Pages

St. Louis CPA: see /cpa-st-louis/. Clayton tax accountant: see /tax-accountant-clayton/. St. Charles CPA: see /cpa-st-charles/.