Tax & Compliance
Individual Tax Preparation
Your personal return and your business return are one decision, not two.
For most of the people we work with, the personal return is where the business result finally lands.
K-1 income flows through. Owner compensation shows up as wages. Distributions affect basis. A property sale interacts with passive loss carryforwards that have been accumulating for years. Treating that return as a separate, standalone exercise in April is how good business tax planning gets undone at the last step.
Where the complexity actually is
Straightforward returns are straightforward. The returns we spend time on have a few specific characteristics.
Pass-through income. K-1s arrive late, sometimes with amended versions, and the basis and at-risk calculations behind them have to be maintained year over year or the eventual disposition is wrong.
Rental property. Depreciation, passive activity limitations, suspended losses, and the question of whether the activity rises to a trade or business — each of which changes the answer materially.
Multiple states. Residency, sourcing and credit-for-taxes-paid rules vary, and getting them wrong tends to mean paying twice.
Foreign exposure. Accounts, income or assets abroad trigger reporting obligations with penalties that are disproportionate to the amounts involved.
Planned, not just filed
The return itself is the last step. The decisions that determine its outcome — retirement contributions, the timing of income and deductions, harvesting losses, how much salary versus distribution to take — all happen before December 31.
Clients on our recurring plans get quarterly projections through the year, so the April number is a figure they have already seen rather than a surprise. That is the entire point of doing it that way.
Estimated payments, calculated rather than guessed
Underpayment penalties are avoidable and frequently paid anyway, usually because estimates were set once from a prior-year figure and never revisited.
We recalculate quarterly against how the year is actually going, and adjust. If income has fallen, you stop overpaying. If it has risen, you find out in time to do something about it.
Common questions
My return used to be simple. When did it stop being simple?
Usually at the point you acquired K-1 income, a rental property, equity compensation, or income in a second state. Any one of those introduces interactions that consumer software handles poorly.
Do you handle foreign income and accounts?
Yes. Foreign account reporting carries severe penalties for non-filing, and the thresholds are lower than most people expect. Several of our team work regularly with clients holding assets abroad.
Can you review prior years?
Yes, and we usually do. Amended returns are worthwhile when we find something material, and the three-year window means recent years are still open.
What languages do you work in?
English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian across the team.
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