Tax Return Preparation

The returns we prepare

Individuals — Form 1040, including returns with foreign income, rental income, investment activity or self-employment
Non-residents — Form 1040-NR, for cases where only U.S.-source income is taxed
Partnerships and multi-member LLCs — Form 1065 and a Schedule K-1 for each partner
S-Corp — Form 1120-S; reasonable compensation is calculated, not assumed
C-Corp — Form 1120, including foreign-owned companies that file it together with Form 5472
Multi-state — apportionment of income where there is activity, sales or employment in more than one state

What a licensed preparer changes

Plenty of people hold a PTIN and file returns for a fee. Few of them can represent you before the IRS afterwards. A CPA can speak for you in an examination, answer letters and negotiate. An unlicensed preparer generally cannot.

That difference matters most in the year something goes wrong — which is exactly the year you least want to be explaining your own return to an examiner.

We use Intuit ProSeries and file electronically. Returns are reviewed before they go in; rather than handing you a signature page, we go through the result together.

Deadlines and extensions

Partnership and S-Corp returns are filed in March, individual and C-Corp returns in April. An extension moves the filing date, not the payment date — the balance still falls due in April. So that penalties do not build up quietly, we tell you what to pay alongside the extension.

What changes once we are working together

Your return is filed on time, and if an extension is needed you know in advance what to pay

Every position taken is documented; when it is questioned years later the answer is ready

If you have income abroad, double taxation is prevented through the right mechanism

You go through the result together before the return is filed

Common questions

I have income in another country.

This is the core of our practice.

Foreign income, the foreign tax credit, treaty positions and the reports that go with them are handled together. Having the return done by one person and the reports by another is where the inconsistencies between them come from.

I have a return from an earlier year that was never filed.

An unfiled return does not become time-barred.

Penalties keep running until the return is filed. In most cases catching up on past years is both cheaper and less risky than waiting.

Will you review a return someone else prepared?

We will, and we tell you what we find as it is.

If there is a mistake worth correcting, we explain it and what an amended return would involve. If there is no mistake, we say that too — we do not look for problems in order to create work.