I am refinancing a mortgage, and the lender is asking for verification from a CPA of self-employment, and company ownership percentage. Since I've been doing my personal and business taxes myself with TurboTax for several years, I have not found a CPA that is willing to write a "comfort letter" for this. Does Intuit/TurboTax provide this service, for self-preparers?
TurboTax is software company for self-prepared tax returns. Nobody but you know if you are self-employed of not. TurboTax just used the information that yiu give it - right or wrong.
(1) The mortgage broker is just going through a checklist of things. I've never been aware of the underwriters (who actually have the power to give the loan) to require it for a self employed small business. (2) In the unlikely event they actually do require it (they deny your loan because of it), you really don't want to work with the mortgage company anyways.
I've seen this rarely, but for independent contractors who only have a year or two of contracting income.
I agree, they all do required at least two years of tax returns showing self employment, but the 'comfort letter' is just a waste of time.
Even when a tax professional does write a 'comfort letter' for a small business (that they don't do the accounting for), the letter really doesn't say anything useful anyways. It usually says something like "according to what the taxpayer told me ... " and indicates the tax professional does not have any information beyond what the taxpayer said.