St. Louis Tax Accountant for Business Owners and Families
Most people go looking for a tax accountant in St. Louis in about the third week of March, which is the worst possible time to be shopping and the worst possible time for anyone to help you. By then the year is closed. Whatever could have been done about it needed doing in June.
Thompson Flaherty is an Illinois and Missouri-licensed CPA firm working with St. Louis business owners and families year-round. We prepare the return, but the useful part happens in the ten months nobody thinks about tax. Book a 30-minute intro call and we will tell you what we would look at first.
What a St. Louis Tax Accountant Should Be Doing All Year
Tax preparation and tax planning get talked about as one service and they are not remotely the same job.
Preparation is backward-looking. It records what already happened and files it correctly, and a good preparer saves you from penalties and mistakes. That work matters, but it cannot change the number.
Planning is forward-looking, and it is where the money is. Entity structure, owner compensation, the timing of equipment purchases and retirement contributions, how distributions are handled, whether an S-corp election makes sense for your situation. Those decisions have to be made while the year is still running.
If your current tax services in St. Louis consist of dropping off a folder in February and getting a return back in April, you are paying for half the job.
Missouri and Illinois Tax Filed by One Firm
The St. Louis metro straddles a state line, and that creates tax work that a single-state preparer is not equipped to see.
Let’s look at an example. We picked up a client whose business was registered in Missouri while a good share of the revenue came from work performed in Illinois. The prior preparer, Missouri-only, had filed accordingly. The apportionment between the two states had never been looked at, the Illinois filing obligation had not been picked up, and the owner had no idea any of it was open.
We are licensed in both states, so the Missouri return, the Illinois return and the personal return are prepared by people who can see all three at once. Nothing gets handed between two firms who have never spoken.
The St. Louis Earnings Tax Most Preparers Miss
The city’s 1% earnings tax catches more people than most preparers realise. It applies to anyone who lives in St. Louis city, wherever their employer happens to be, and to anyone employed by a business operating inside the city regardless of where they live. If you have staff in either category, withholding is your obligation and it is remitted quarterly.
It is the single item we most often find handled incorrectly on a new client’s prior-year filings, usually because an out-of-area preparer did not know to look for it.
It is not a large percentage, which is exactly why it gets overlooked, and the arrears add up quietly. We wrote a full explanation of who owes it and what it costs in our breakdown of the St. Louis earnings tax.
How Much Does Tax Preparation Cost in St. Louis?
A business return on its own, S-corp or LLC, generally runs $1,200 to $3,500 depending on how complex the year was and what condition the books are in. Multi-state filings and multiple entities sit at the higher end of that.
Most of our clients are not buying a return in isolation, though. A year-round relationship that covers the filing, quarterly estimated payments, planning conversations before decisions get made, and access to us when something comes up runs between $1,200 and $3,000 a month depending on scope.
We quote a real number after an intro call rather than a range on a page, and we will tell you if a straightforward return is genuinely all you need.
Do I Need a CPA or Is a Tax Preparer Enough?
For a simple W-2 household with no side income, a competent preparer is often enough and we will say so.
The calculation changes once there is a business involved. A CPA license means state-regulated continuing education, the ability to represent you before the IRS, and the training to handle the planning work rather than just the data entry. Once you have an entity, employees, or income crossing a state line, the gap between a seasonal preparer and a CPA stops being theoretical.
Anyone can register for a preparer identification number. The license is a different thing.
Tax Services We Provide Across the St. Louis Metro
Business and personal return preparation, federal and both states. Quarterly estimated payment calculations, so April is not a surprise. Year-round planning, including entity selection and the S-corp question. Multi-state apportionment for businesses operating on both sides of the river. Sales and use tax compliance. IRS and state notice response, which is worth having a professional handle. And coordination between the business return and the owner’s personal return, because they are one decision, not two.
Our business tax planning page covers the ongoing engagement in more detail, and if the books need attention first, that is our St. Louis bookkeeping work.
Where We Serve
We work with tax clients across St. Louis city, Clayton, University City, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Creve Coeur, Ladue, Chesterfield, Maplewood, Florissant and throughout St. Charles County. Most of the relationship runs virtually, and Edwardsville is a short drive when meeting in person is worth it.
For a fuller picture of the firm, see our St. Louis CPA services page. We also have dedicated pages for Clayton, University City and St. Charles.
How to Get Started
Schedule a 30-minute call through our contact page. Bring last year’s return if you have it handy. We will look at what was filed, tell you what we would do differently, and you can decide from there. No cost for the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you file both my Missouri and Illinois returns?
Yes. We are licensed in both states and handle multi-state filings for St. Louis metro businesses regularly.
When should I switch tax accountants?
Mid-year is easier than you would think, and it beats switching in February. It gives us time to review the prior returns and get the current year set up properly before deadlines start applying pressure.
Do you handle IRS notices?
Yes. As CPAs we can represent you before the IRS, which is a meaningful difference from a preparer who can only assemble the paperwork.
What do you need from me to get started?
The prior two years of returns and access to the current year’s books. If the books are behind, we deal with that first and it is a common starting point rather than an embarrassing one.