Your time is valuable, and so is doing things right. So get yourself a payroll service, bookkeeper, tax preparer and insurance broker–and keep multiple lawyers on speed dial.

When my husband and I opened our law firm, we were confident. We had a name, a business plan, office space, and a website. We had thought of everything—except paperwork. And more paperwork. We had not considered how much time we would spend sorting through canceled checks, bank statements, payroll stubs, and letters from various tax authorities regarding regulations.

While, as a tax lawyer, I well understood that taxes needed to be filed quarterly, I hadn’t done the math: quarterly filings for federal, state, and local taxes meant 12 separate submissions a year, just for income taxes. We also had to file federal, state, and local payroll taxes (typically also filed quarterly), unemployment taxes, and business development taxes. We were required to register with the state and submit annual reports. When we changed the sign out front, we had to obtain approval from our local authorities and pay a fee. There was even a separate annual fee for having a private alarm company. We needed to maintain business liability insurance, professional insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, and health insurance.

Did I mention that there were only two of us at the time?

Running a business involves more than just flipping the lights on, especially if you want to do things the right way (and trust me, you do). This reality often conflicts with the amount of time you have to spend actually managing your business.

What’s the solution? Surround yourself with good people. Not just capable employees, but a professional team dedicated to handling all the compliance issues so that you can focus on what you wanted to do in the first place: run your business.

It’s true that a professional team costs money, something that startups and small businesses are often short on. But consider this:

A good tax preparer. The IRS reports that business taxpayers spend an average of 24 hours completing their federal income tax return. This includes 11 hours devoted to record-keeping, five hours for tax planning, and eight hours for completing and submitting forms. That’s more than half of one work week—on one form.

Taxpayers who sell or perform services across state or local lines face even more complexity, including computing and remitting sales tax. U.S. sales tax rates not only vary by state but also by city and county—according to tax compliance software company Avalara, there are more than 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions in the U.S. And those rates? They are constantly changing.

There’s also a learning curve. The recent House passed tax bill (now officially named the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) weighed in at over 1,000 pages (it’s still being worked on). Four years ago, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 made changes to Form 1099-K reporting requirements for third-party payment networks (like PayPal, Venmo, etc.) and online marketplaces, impacting small businesses. Since then, the IRS has walked back implementation, leaving some taxpayers confused. Processing all of those changes—and the changes to the changes—can be time-consuming and frustrating.

So, you could do your own taxes, but chances are you’re too busy with other things.

A tax preparer does not need a specific credential to be competent. However, by law, anyone paid to prepare or assist in preparing federal tax returns must have a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). Paid tax preparers are required to sign and........

© Forbes