Individual Tax Preparation

Personal income taxes are likely to be one of your largest annual costs. Since most financial decisions have an impact on your taxes, having a solid strategy is very important. We can help you develop that strategy and explore your tax-saving opportunities. Our experience in a wide variety of areas ensures that your taxes are completed accurately and with the greatest savings possible.

Multiple States

We can help you file in all 45 states that have income taxes. You may have to file multiple state tax returns if you lived or worked in separate states during the tax year. If this is the case your home state should give you a tax credit on your resident return for those taxes paid to another state.

This process can vary considerably by state. We can review each state to find out how you should go about it.

Stock Sales, Interest, Dividends

Interest, dividends, and stock sales are usually taxable. Even if you did not receive a 1099! Leaving this information off of your return is one of the most common triggers for the IRS. Our process help prevent notices from the IRS and save you future complications.

Employee Stock

Employee stocks come with many great opportunities but not without complications. Please refer to the tax planning section for more details on how we can help you save taxes by planning when to sell and exercise your employee shares.

There are four main types of plans:

ISOs (Incentive Stock Options)
RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)
NQOs (Non-Qualified Options)
ESPPs (Employee Stock purchase Plan)

These have different types of tax treatment based on the fair market value, the grant date, the vesting date, the bargain element, purchase price, sale price, and sale
date. The list goes on. Either way, we have the experience to help you report these transactions correctly. We will also take the time to explain the situation to understand
when you will be taxed, how much you will be taxed, and how to develop a tax
strategy to save money.

Rental Property

The key to mastering your rental property taxes is to organize your income and expenses. Landlords who keep detailed summaries of their rental property expenses are the ones who benefit the most at tax time.

We can help you track, record and report everything, including:

Purchase price
Accumulated depreciation
Current depreciation
Rental Income
Commission or property management fees
Advertising costs
Cleaning, maintenance and repair costs

Homeowners insurance
Condo fees
Real estate taxes
Mortgage interest expenses
Other expenses such as utilities, landscaping and garbage collection

We can help you calculate passive losses, passive loss limitations, and carry forward losses. These can get very complicated and involve multiple years of filings. For these reasons we recommend you reach out for help as soon as you make your property available for rent.

Sole Proprietorships & Single-Member LLC

Sole Proprietorships and Single-Member LLCs are reported with your individual return. For information and services about other corporate structures, see our business section.

Whether you have just started a business or have an existing one, the first question is often “should I incorporate?”. The answer depends on a lot of things. The first thing that surprises people is that it might not change your taxes either way. A sole proprietorship and single-member LLC are treated EXACTLY the same way for tax purposes. Other corporate structures change your taxes, and there are considerations other than taxes for choosing to incorporate. The best thing to do is talk to us about your specific situation, and we can give you the best guidance for you and your business.

Here are list of the most common topics we deal with:

Self employment tax
EIN (Tax ID Number)
Self-employed retirement plans
Self-employed health insurance
Quarterly estimated payments
What is deductible?

Bookkeeping options
Use of personal vehicles, cellphone, and internet
Home office deductions
The qualified business income deduction
Most tax advantageous entity for you, S Corp, C Corp, Partnership, Single Member LLC, Sole Proprietorship

Quarterly Estimated Payments

If you own a business, earn money as a freelancer, have large capital gains, or other income that is not subject to withholdings, you’ll probably need to make estimated tax payments every quarter to avoid penalties and interest. Since most people are paid by salary, their employer withholds income tax. But for millions of taxpayers who are either self-employed or have substantial non-wage income, there is usually no automatic withholding method. For these taxpayers, it is necessary to pay quarterly estimated tax payments. Figuring out your quarterly tax payments is not always easy, but it is important.

The payments are due quarterly on the following dates:

April 15th
June 15th
September 15th
January 15th (of following year)

We can help you figure out if you need to pay estimated taxes and how much you should pay each quarter. We can do this by forecasting your tax liability based on your estimated income, expenses, and withholdings for the year.

We can do this for the IRS and state. We can explain how to pay them, ways to reduce the liability (if possible), and what happens if you don’t pay them.

Gifts

The IRS defines a gift as any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money’s worth) is not received in return. The donor is generally responsible for paying the gift tax. To pay the gift tax, a special gift tax return needs to be prepared.

The general rule is that any gift is a taxable gift. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

Generally, the following gifts are not taxable gifts:

Gifts that are not more than the annual exclusion for the calendar year.
Tuition or medical expenses you pay for someone (the educational and medical exclusions).
Gifts to your spouse.
Gifts to a political organization for it’s use.
Here are the IRS FAQs about gifts but please contact us for additional questions or for help preparing a gift tax return.

Foreign Bank Accounts

There are two important filings when it comes to foreign bank accounts and foreign assets. FinCen 114, commonly referred to as Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) and 8938 reporting. We can help you with both. There are different limits for each, but generally, if you have foreign bank accounts or assets with a value over $10,000 USD during the year these filings are applicable to you.

It is important to note a few things about these filings:

They do not affect the tax you will owe, they are informational filings.
Not filing them can have serious penalties, in some cases up to $10,000 USD.
The 8938 form is part of your tax return, the FBAR is a separate filing.

Foreign Income

American tax rules require all U.S. citizens and green card holders, including expatriates, to file returns on their global income. Most other countries only require residents to file or only include income arising in that country. As a result, American expatriates often need to file two tax returns, one in the US and one where they live. To avoid double taxation, the IRS allows them to claim either the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or the Foreign Tax Credit when they file.

A common misconception is that the excluded or credited income does not need to be reported, but that’s not the case. We can help you avoid this and other common misstatements

Something New

Change is inevitable, and many changes in your life affect your taxes. Maybe you have used TurboTax or H&R block for years but now you no longer feel comfortable with those services. As things get more complicated you want to make sure that your finances are being handled correctly by professionals.

We hear it all the time. “This year is different because I… got married, bought a house, received stock options, started a business, worked overseas, moved to a new state, have an inheritance, rented my home, retired, had a baby, became a student, etc…” We’ve heard it all and look forward to helping you.