How to prepare before speaking with a tax professional

A professional's time is largely spent either advising or reconstructing, and you control which. Arriving with income documents gathered, transactions categorized, and the year's activity in one place converts hours of reconstruction into advice.

Countorra can export a summary of your tax information, which is a reasonable starting point for that conversation. Bring the underlying documents too — a summary is a description of your records, not a substitute for them.

The questions worth asking are usually the ones you thought of in the weeks before, not during the meeting. Keep a running list as things come up: a change in circumstances, an unusual transaction, something you were unsure how to treat.

Be specific about what changed this year — moving, a change in employment or income, a property transaction, a new dependent. These are the facts most likely to change the answer, and the ones most easily forgotten in the moment.

If you bring a figure from Countorra, bring its limits with it. The estimate always uses the standard deduction, does not model tax credits, and does not account for payments already made — so a professional's number can differ from it substantially and legitimately.

Countorra is software for organizing your own financial information. It is not a tax preparer, an accounting firm or a law firm, and nothing in it is a substitute for advice about your particular circumstances.