Is a CPA worth it?

Price three things separately: the fee, the errors it retires, and your hours. A $236 average base return charge against ten saved hours and one avoided mistake usually clears easily for business owners; for a single-W-2 filer it usually does not. The structure of your year decides.

Inputs: professional return in the ~$450 range (the $236 average base▸NATP · 2026 plus a business schedule, per the NSA per-form shape▸NSA · 2016-17 survey), against the $130 upper-DIY software tier plus state▸TurboTax · 2025-26 season. Net fee difference: roughly $300. Against it: ten to fifteen owner-hours not spent in filing software, and the error exposure a professional retires: a single missed home-office, vehicle or retirement-plan election on a five-figure profit moves more tax than the whole fee. The asymmetric term is the error cost: fees are capped, mistakes are not.

• Entity choice on the table: the S-corp election decision alone (payroll tax vs salary reasonableness) is worth a paid hour with someone who runs it weekly.
• Multi-state anything: remote employees, marketplace sales, a move mid-year. Sourcing rules are where software defaults quietly file wrong-but-plausible returns.
• IRS contact: a notice, an audit, back years. Representation is the licensed act; see CPA vs EA for the cheaper credential with the same standing.
• Audit-grade statements required: no choice exists; only a CPA firm delivers (the license gate).

• They ask questions before filing season, not after. Proactive entity, retirement and estimated-payment advice is the product; data entry is not.
• The fee is itemized and predictable. Surprise invoices for "complexity" that was visible in January signal a mispriced engagement, not a complex year.
• You understand your own return afterward. A professional who cannot explain the return in plain language is renting you a signature.
• Benchmark the fee against the published averages; paying double the market base for a plain return needs a reason you can name.