It is harder than it sounds.
A referral helps. Credentials matter. A polished website and a good client portal are nice. Price matters too. But none of those things tells you whether the person preparing and reviewing your tax return has dealt with the issues your company actually has.
We regularly review prior-year returns when startups come to us from other firms. The issues we find are not always calculation errors. Often, they are things that were never identified in the first place.
A company had qualifying R&D activity, but nobody evaluated the credit. An employee moved to another state, but nobody considered whether that changed the company's filing obligations. A foreign founder or related company created an international reporting requirement that was missed. A state credit was available but never claimed.
Equity is another area where founders may not even know there is a tax question to ask. An 83(b) election can have a strict 30-day deadline. Qualified Small Business Stock, or QSBS, can potentially provide a significant tax benefit to founders and investors, but whether stock qualifies depends on requirements that start long before an eventual sale.
And sometimes the immediate problem is simpler: the filing deadline is approaching, and the founder has no idea where the return stands.
Founders have companies to run. They should not need to become tax experts just to figure out whether their CPA is asking the right questions.
So if I were choosing a CPA for a startup, these are the questions I would ask.
At a minimum, understand who is working on your return, whether they regularly work with companies like yours, how they identify state and international issues, what communication you can expect, and exactly what your fee covers.
011. How much of your practice is startups like mine?
“Do you work with startups?” is an easy question to answer yes to.
A better question is how much of the firm's practice actually consists of startups, and whether those companies look anything like yours.
A venture-backed Delaware C corporation with foreign founders, software developers in several countries, remote employees and an R&D credit has very different tax issues from a local service business. Neither is inherently more difficult. They are simply different.
Ask about companies at your stage, in your industry and with a similar ownership structure.
You do not need a CPA who has seen your exact company before. You do want one who recognizes the issues that tend to come with it.
A good CPA can still be the wrong CPA for your company.
Someone who primarily works with local small businesses may be excellent at what they do but have little reason to regularly encounter foreign-founder reporting, multistate issues, startup R&D, QSBS or venture-backed C corporation questions.
022. Who will actually prepare and review my return?
The person you speak with during the sales process may not be the person preparing your tax return. That is normal.
What matters is understanding who is responsible for the work.
Who prepares the return? Who reviews it? Who makes decisions when something unusual comes up? Who will you communicate with if you have a tax question?
A recognizable firm name does not prepare your tax return. People do.
Understanding the experience of the people actually responsible for your account can tell you much more than the firm's marketing materials.
033. What tax issues do you commonly see startups miss?
This is one of my favorite questions because the answer can tell you quite a bit.
A CPA who regularly works with startups should be able to talk comfortably about the issues they encounter in practice.
Depending on the company, that might mean an R&D credit that was never evaluated, a state filing or credit that was not considered, an international information return triggered by foreign ownership, or a tax consequence attached to an equity transaction.
QSBS and 83(b) elections are good examples. Many first-time founders have never heard of either one when they form their companies. They should not need to know enough tax law to realize that they need to ask about them.
You do not need to know enough tax to quiz a prospective CPA on individual tax forms or Code sections. The point of the question is to see whether they know what to look for.
044. How do you determine which states we need to file in?
Startups can develop a multistate tax footprint surprisingly quickly.
An employee moves. The company hires remotely. Customers are located across the country. The business registers in another state. Operations change.
The answer is not always simply “file everywhere you have a customer,” nor is it necessarily limited to the state where the company was incorporated or where the founder lives.
Ask how the CPA identifies state filing requirements, which state returns the firm handles, and whether they also consider state-specific tax credits and other opportunities.
The state analysis should not begin and end with compliance. Sometimes paying attention to where income is taxed or where credits are available can change the company's overall tax result.
055. Are there areas you don't handle, and can you connect me with someone who does?
This may sound like a strange question to ask someone you are considering hiring, but I would be more comfortable with a CPA who can answer it clearly.
Startups can encounter income tax, payroll tax, sales tax, international tax, transfer pricing, state registrations and other specialized issues. It is unrealistic to expect one person to be an expert in every one of them.
The important question is what happens when something falls outside the firm's expertise.
A good advisor should recognize when a specialist is needed rather than trying to stretch an answer into an area they do not regularly handle. Ideally, they can also help connect you with someone who does.
Sometimes “we don't handle that, but I know who you should talk to” is a very good answer.
066. What should I tell you about during the year?
Your CPA does not necessarily need to call you every quarter.
They do need to know when something happens that could change your tax situation.
Ask what events they want to hear about before tax season.
Hiring an employee in another state, adding a foreign owner, forming a foreign subsidiary, issuing founder stock, granting equity, making an acquisition, restructuring the company, raising capital or deciding to wind down a business can all create tax consequences.
A founder may not know which events matter for tax. That is exactly why this is a useful conversation to have before they happen.
077. What should I expect from communication, especially around deadlines?
Tax season is busy. That is true at virtually every CPA firm.
But there is a difference between not receiving an immediate answer to a technical question and not knowing whether your tax return is going to be filed.
Ask how the firm communicates during the preparation process.
How will you know when information is missing? Will you know when the return is in preparation or review? Who should you contact if you have a question? What happens if the firm is waiting on something from you?
Two weeks before a filing deadline is a bad time to discover that you do not know where your return stands.
Good communication does not mean your CPA answers every email within an hour. It means you understand what is happening, what is needed from you and whether an important deadline is at risk.
088. What is included in the fee?
CPA fees can vary considerably, and comparing two quotes is not always as straightforward as it looks.
A lower fee may be completely appropriate for a straightforward company. A higher fee does not automatically mean better tax advice.
The more useful question is what you are actually paying for.
Does the engagement cover only preparation of the federal return? Are state returns included? Is the R&D credit evaluated separately? What about international forms? Are questions during the year included, or is tax planning billed separately? What happens when an issue comes up that falls outside the original scope?
If bookkeeping is handled separately, ask where the bookkeeper's responsibility ends and the tax firm's begins, including who is responsible for tax adjustments or cleanup needed to prepare the return.
Tax preparation fees are easy to compare. The cost of something that was never identified is much harder to see.
If one firm quotes substantially more than another, ask why. There may be a meaningful difference in scope or expertise. There may not be. You should understand the difference before deciding.
099. How do you use technology in your tax practice?
Technology should not be the reason you choose a CPA. But in 2026, I would ask how they use it.
Tax professionals now have access to better research tools, automation, data analysis and AI-assisted workflows than they did even a few years ago. Used properly, those tools can help research unusual issues, review information more efficiently and identify areas that deserve a closer look.
That does not mean the CPA with the newest software is necessarily better.
Technology cannot decide whether your particular facts create a filing requirement or whether a tax position is appropriate. Someone still needs to understand the rules, ask the right questions and review the result.
But I would want to know that my CPA is taking advantage of the tools available to the profession rather than practicing exactly the same way they did 15 years ago.
10A Referral Is a Starting Point
A lot of CPA relationships begin with a referral.
Your attorney knows someone. An investor recommends a firm. Another founder likes their accountant. The CPA who prepares your personal return introduces you to someone.
Those are all perfectly reasonable ways to start your search.
But a CPA who is excellent for an individual or a traditional small business is not automatically the right CPA for a startup. The reverse is also true. A CPA who spends most of their time working with venture-backed technology companies may not be the person I would choose for every other type of business.
The question is not whether someone is a “good CPA.”
It is whether their experience fits what your company needs.
11Don't Confuse Looking Modern With Practicing Modern
A polished website, client portal and AI branding do not tell you whether someone is a good tax advisor.
But neither does a long résumé tell you whether someone is keeping up with how tax practice is changing.
I would look for both: experience to recognize the issue and a willingness to use modern tools to investigate it efficiently.
The distinction is what happens behind the scenes. Are they using better research tools? Are they finding efficient ways to review information? Are they continuing to learn as tax law and technology change?
Modern tools are useful. Tax judgment is still the part you are hiring the CPA for.
When we review prior-year startup returns, some of the most important issues we find are not arithmetic mistakes. They are facts that nobody thought to ask about.
That is ultimately what I would look for in a startup CPA: someone who understands your type of company well enough to know which questions to ask.
Because as a founder, you should not have to know the questions yourself.
Looking for a CPA for your startup?
Talara works with startups and growing companies on federal, state and international tax compliance, R&D credits and the tax issues that tend to appear as companies grow.
If something falls outside our specialty, we will tell you that too.
Talk to Talara about your startup's tax needs.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. The rules are fact-specific, change over time, and depend on details unique to your company. Talk to us about how they apply to your situation.