Online tax preparation services at Valim mean a licensed CPA prepares and signs your personal return.

At Valim, a CPA prepares your individual return from $195. Rental properties, K-1s or a second state each add to the fee, and so does higher income. The instant quote sets that fee from your answers before any work starts, and Valim bills nothing by the hour.

Yes, at Valim, a licensed US CPA prepares your return, then reviews and signs it before filing. Under IRS rules, anyone with a PTIN can prepare tax returns for pay. The number costs $18.75 for 2026. It is not a credential, so ask any online tax preparer who will sign your return.

It depends on the expert you get, because Intuit’s current product pages do not say every TurboTax expert is a CPA. Intuit now sells the service as TurboTax Expert Assist and TurboTax Expert Full Service. It says its experts average 12 years’ experience, a figure the experts report themselves. A CPA can represent you in an IRS audit under a Form 2848. A preparer with only a PTIN cannot, and one with an AFSP record can do so only for a return they prepared and signed.

An enrolled agent is licensed by the IRS, after passing its three-part exam on federal tax or through past IRS work. A CPA holds a state license and passed an exam on accounting and auditing as well as tax. A CPA, or an EA enrolled by exam, can represent you before the IRS on any matter. Both need a PTIN to prepare returns for pay.

AI can read your forms and do the math, but the law makes a person responsible for a paid return. That person signs the return and enters their PTIN. Circular 230 also lets only individuals, not software, practice before the IRS. At Valim, automation handles the data entry, and the judgment stays with the CPA who signs your return.

It can be, when the firm follows the FTC Safeguards Rule, which treats tax preparers as financial institutions. The rule generally requires encryption of client data in transit and at rest, and multi-factor authentication for anyone who logs in. If unencrypted data on 500 or more consumers is taken, the firm must tell the FTC within 30 days of discovery. Valim complies with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the law behind the Safeguards Rule. It never uses client data to train AI models.

You need every tax form you received for the year, such as W-2s, 1099s, SSA-1099s and Form 1095-A. Add an SSN or ITIN for each person on the return, last year’s AGI and any IP PIN the IRS issued you. Keep records of crypto transactions that no form reports, and of deductions such as mortgage interest and charitable gifts. If you have lost last year’s return, a free IRS tax transcript shows most of its lines.