After going through literally 5 CPAs in 5 years for my last business (a services company), **I finally** found a phenomenal one who saved my partners and I literally $72k by catching an error on my prior year returns, and is doing a fantastic job on my 2025 prep and tax strategy. But... why tf did it take 5 mediocre ones that were literally costing me money, to get here?? This boggles my brain. Yes my tax return is 400+ pages long, which is intimidating to many, but... isn't that the whole business? And why you study to become a CPA in the first place, so you can handle things like structuring business installment sales and passive vs active income in multiple states? Another real estate entrepreneur friend of mine just... *seemed like* he was overpaying though I had no ability to verify that myself (I'm not an expert). I asked him if he **loved** his CPA, and sure enough he was "Meh" on them. I referred him to my new CPA and, yep, $23k overpaid in prior 2 years' returns. Another founder I partner with was in the same boat... I had a general sense he might have been overpaying but didn't want to pry and he thought his current CPA was 'fine', didn't feel the need to switch, etc. But then one day he wanted a second opinion so I sent him my guy's number. Once again, $90k+ in errors on prior year returns, half of which can still be helped by filing amendments, thankfully. This is nuts. What is wrong with the industry? Is this the equivalent of shipping SaaS with bugs in it, "tax edition"? Many years ago, I used to sell accounting & tax services, so I kind of get it... quality varies quite a bit among accounting people. And to be clear I would not recommend my former employer or really any of the venture-backed 'tech enabled accounting services' out there. But still. It seems so wrong and backward that only, what... 15%? of CPAs serving businesses 1-5M/yr in revenue, can accurately file returns in a completely-compliant way that genuinely realizes the minimum tax burden? Has anyone else gone through this madness, or is it just me?