Cost to prepare US and Canadian tax returns?

I moved to the US from Canada in mid-2009 to start a new job on TN status. I have previously completed all my own tax returns (for Canada, the US, and the UK) but since this will be my dual status year in the US and since I will become a non-resident in Canada I would like professional help.

I spoke with a Canadian accountant today who I trust and who says his firm prepares "hundreds" of US returns. He gave me an estimate of $1,600 (CAD) to prepare my US federal, NY state, and Canadian returns (total of four US returns because of the dual status year). Does this sound reasonable?

I am in New York City - would I be better off finding someone here?

I spoke with a Canadian accountant today who I trust and who says his firm prepares "hundreds" of US returns. He gave me an estimate of $1,600 (CAD) to prepare my US federal, NY state, and Canadian returns (total of four US returns because of the dual status year). Does this sound reasonable?

This sounds like way too much. A quick search on the Internet revealed average prices to prepare a US federal/state return to be around $200:

http://taxes.about.com/od/findataxpreparer/a/prices.htm

One might reasonably triple this in your case (to account for the dual status and Canadian returns) but that would make $600--still way less than you are being quoted.

And tripling it seems to me a worst case scenario--there is going to be some general information gathering that applies to all three returns. And--unless you had substantial US income during the part of the year you were a nonresident--that part of the process should be a no-brainer.

A Canadian accountant is certainly going to be more familiar with cross border tax issues. On the other hand a NYC accountant is going to be more familiar with any tricky nuances involving the NYC city income tax.

Their claim to process 'hundreds' of US returns a year is not necessarily good news from my perspective--if they handle that many cross border cases a year they should have developed an 'economy of scale' by now which would allow them to process such cases more reasonably.

The charge for cross-border eeturns done by a pro will usually run you about $400 per return , so the quote is not out of line. Given therea re only about a 1/2 dozen firms that will do this correctly, their prices are high.

Asking some Q's at forums.serbinski.com will get free answers from the best non-pro there is.

Thanks for the helpful replies. I want these returns prepared correctly, so I sent them off to the high-priced accountant last week. Hopefully my taxes will be simpler in subsequent years and I can use this year's returns as a model to complete them myself.