r/AskAccounting

Hi, I am currently a Junior in high school and have looked a bit into Accounting, and it seems like a solid profession to head into. I wanted to get on here and ask for people's opinions because while I have heard a lot that Accounting is a very stable and versatile career and has a lot of opportunity to get a good salary, I am just unsure of what to expect exactly and how I can prepare while still being in high school. I have also heard recently that a decent amount of Accountants have been getting laid off...

After this semester ends, I will have a 4.4 weighted GPA (8 APs) and currently have a 1430 SAT (taking ACT next). I already take College classes at The Ohio State University, and plan on taking Accounting I next spring, to get a jumpstart and also see if I even want to do it. I am in a good amount of business related extracurriculars as well. I love math, problem solving, and I like to think I learn things pretty quick. I understand Accounting in college is far from easy but I am willing to put the work in.

I would be really grateful for some advice from Accountants, and even CPAs because if I were to do Accounting, I would most definitely plan on getting my CPA.

I do AP and AR for a 25 person marketing agency. We have 40 invoices outstanding and I am manually sending Hey just checking in emails. It is awkward and I forget who I already pinged. QBO sends reminders but they are ugly and clients ignore them. I want a smart sequence that checks invoice age, matches tone to client history, escalates to the account manager after 2 tries and stops the second they pay. I do not want to buy a full AR platform. What is a lightweight way to automate follow up without sounding like a robot?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but here it goes.

I own a small business. Super small. My profit for 2025 was $14k. Another small business owner helped me set up my business. He set it up as a c-corp when I thought it was being set up as an LLC. He also helped me elect s-corp designation... so I thought. I filed out the s-corp election form and mailed it to the IRS. I didn't know I needed a confirmation letter. Lesson learned.

I guess the IRS never got or filed my election form. So when it came time to file my 2025 taxes in March as an s-corp, the return bounced and I realized my s-corp designation was never filed. I did a late election and filed an extension on my taxes. The IRS sent the form back to me saying they didn't accept electronically signed signatures, only handwritten and gave me 30 days to fix it. Fine. I fixed it, sent it back within one day. I got a rejection notice this week (6 weeks later) saying it was rejected for 2025 (but accepted for 2026) because my request was missing reasonable cause. In the reason section of the form, I had said it was inadvertent oversight, however I did not go into detail about what that oversight was, which is the reason why I think it may have not been accepted.

No where, when the first letter was sent to me to fix the signature, was it mentioned that I needed to also fix the reasonable cause.

I called and emailed my CPA for our personal taxes to ask for his help but I'm not getting a response. So that brings me here. Is it possible to appeal this again? Can I do it faster that having to mail something and wait several weeks for a mailed response? Do I just bite the bullet and file as a c-corp and lose out on a lot of money? I'm pretty sick of this game the government is making me play to just pay my damn taxes like an honest American.

I know accountants can't give personalized accounting or legal advice here so I'm wondering what you might do in this situation.

Hello everyone,

I just completed my freshman year in Accounting. I have the chance to buy an M4 MacBook Air from my college for $500. I was planning on buying a refurbished windows laptop for about $300 from ebay, but this deal came up, so I was wondering if I should buy a MacBook or not. I see a lot of people saying to buy windows for Accounting.

I have a Windows desktop at home, the laptop will be for in person classes and when I am too lazy and want to work in bed.

Thanks!

Hey guys, basically I run an ecom store (based in the US) and I have 0 clue on how to do my taxes. I asked for some advice and the general advice I got was to just look for a professional rather than do it myself. Now the problem I'm running into is that I have no idea what makes an accountant qualified / fit for what I'm currently doing.

I guess I'd love some advice on how to screen for an ecommerce tax accountant, what makes them good, etc. Thanks guys.

Just wanted to get some opinions - just wrapping up with A-levels and want to get into accounting however I don't know whether to sit AAT exams or go to University, any thoughts as whats best for someone like me in London? I've tried finding apprenticeships but no luck as I have little experience.

Employer reviewed my classification/backpay and came back with:

- $5,516.21 before tax
- $4,622.99 into super

I’m a casual employee, averaged around 25 hrs/week, and there was roughly a $6/hr difference between the level I was paid and the level I believe I should’ve been on for trainer duties from around 2021 onward

The super amount being almost the same as the wages amount is confusing me, and the total feels lower than expected.

Does this sound normal or am I misunderstanding something?

Managing commercial tenant improvements means navigating clients on Net-30 terms while paying subcontractors weekly. The invoice tracking and constant follow-ups are getting out of hand. QuickBooks Online is fine, but has anyone transitioned to a contractor-focused platform that simplifies payment tracking and reminders?

Hi everyone,

I posted about this situation a couple of months ago, but I think a lot of people were confused by the way I explained it or thought it was a joke. So here are more details.

I work at a small accounting firm with around 30 employees. About 10 of us work in individual and corporate tax, while the others are mainly in audit. We currently have 3 managers. 2 focused on corporate tax and 1 focused on individual tax.

About a month ago, the individual tax manager left the company. As a result, all the individual tax files were transferred to one of the corporate tax managers, even though she has very limited knowledge with individual tax returns since her background is mainly corporate tax.

The issue is that whenever my colleagues or I submit individual tax returns to her for review, she often sends review notes late at night or during weekends, even during periods when she does not appear busy. I asked her about it as we are close, and she told me that her husband who works at another accounting firm and is an individual tax manager there who usually reviews the returns for her because she is not capable of reviewing individual returns herself.

As far as I know, our firm is not aware that returns prepared by our firm are sometimes being reviewed externally by her husband at another accounting firm.

My question is: is this even legal or allowed from a professional standpoint? What kind of consequences could there be for my manager, the firm, or even the husband if the IRS, CPA, EA, or a client found out about this?

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I've had a few rental clients lately where cost segregation probably made sense from a tax perspective, but I still hesitated bringing it up because of how inconsistent the reports can be. Some are straightforward, others turn into a bunch of follow-up questions and extra review time.Do you guys usually recommend it when the numbers work, or does the operational side affect your decision too?

Hi all,

I’m trying to set up a loan schedule in excel and none of my attempts are quite right.

This is an 11 year $13,375 loan at 15.49% interest rate/APR with an introductory 1 year (technically 11 months) with no interest. The first 11 months have a payment of $200.63 then it goes up to $215.26. Total finance charges if paid over the 11 years is $14,662.58 making to total of all payments $28,037.58.

How can I set this up in excel?

My accountant just told me they need to start charging extra fees from July because of the new AML anti money laundering laws coming in...

seriously how much extra are people paying for this??

has anyone else been hit with unexpected fees from their accountant lately and did you just cop it or push back?

Me and my partner are trying to move into a house in the uk (rent) but because we don’t have in order accounts or up to date returns
(we’ve been waiting on getting an accountant til once we’d moved but it’s looking like that was a mistake)
Our estate agent has told us to get an accountant to look over mine and my partners bank accounts over 2 years and then writing that we’d be able to afford this property.
Is this something that’s normally done? We’re so scared it’s going to trip us up. Also know it might be costly. Any advice is appreciated!

We recently hired our first overseas employees and discovered an error in our international payroll setup. A required local deduction was missed, which means salaries were processed with incorrect amounts. The financial impact is small, but the compliance risk is the bigger concern.

We’re now trying to correct the payroll error properly without triggering fines or creating further issues. Options on the table include adjusting the next payroll cycle, running a correction payroll, or submitting amended filings with local authorities. Advice so far has been inconsistent, especially around what’s considered best practice for global payroll compliance.

Looking to learn how other teams handled early stage international payroll mistakes, what correction process worked best, and how to stay compliant when fixing payroll errors across borders.

Hello everyone! I’m stepping into the accounting field and looking to expand my knowledge in all areas of accounting. I’d love to hear about any trusted trainings, certifications, courses, or programs that you would highly recommend for someone beginning their journey in accounting. Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

If I teach cooking classes in State A and customers come to me in State A for the class, but customers living in other states might purchase the class, which state(s) do I charge sales tax for?

If someone in State B buys a class, do I charge them tax for State B, State A, or no sales tax?

I’m doing a big four internship this summer, but I wanna know if audit or tax is easier respectively I don’t really care about full-time as of right now. I just wanna know which internship was easier because I decided on tax.