Accountant vs. do-it-yourself?
Phoenix,
My advice is if your just starting out or relatively "small", do your taxes yourself (at least for the first few years). Why? Because who knows your business better than you do? It will give you a better understanding of how to run your business more financially efficient on a day-to-day basis instead of having to look at your tax return and say "I need to change some things this next year." If you take just a few minutes each week to organize your receipts, books, info, etc then it's NOT a big headache come tax time, plus if you notice some area that needs changing prior to tax deadline, you can make those changes so that they affect you positively THIS year instead of waiting til next year.
Now, I understand that taxes/payroll are VERY time consuming and confusing to figure out, but it will benefit you to find out all you can about them. It amazes me that people will start building their business with books, BBS such as this one, training, etc, but when it comes to the important part (MONEY!) they rely on someone else to figure it out because they want to "just work on building the business" and don't have the time. Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying that you shouldn't use an accountant/CPA, only that YOU should have intimate knowledge of your finances as well. Possibly your tax situation/payroll is extremely complicated (i.e. working in multiple states, workers comp, insurances, offices, etc), then it would probably be beneficial to get some assistance. Accountants/CPA's aren't in business to make you succeed, they're just reproducing what you give them on the (hopefully) correct forms. Only you can make your business succeed.
I've always done my own taxes, both personal and business. The way I did it was to take a tax course (H & R Block) to learn the basics of tax preparation and tax law (plus it's led to a part-time job of tax preparation with them during the winter months). Very interesting. I learned ALOT even after doing taxes for 6+ years prior. I also found many tax deductions that I could have been taking but wasn't because I was uninformed. As an example, yesterday I told a friend of mine (a former real estate employee) that the capital gains tax on sale of personal residences was repealed. She was surprised and excited. She was even more surprised when I told her that that law was repealed almost 3 years ago. Talk about uninformed!
What I'm saying is if you plan to "just work on building your business", then work on understanding ALL parts of it. Get the assistance you need to figure things out (lawyers, accountants, CPA's, etc), but be cautious about letting someone else try to figure out the best financial way to run your business.
Sorry for the long post.
Good luck!