Introduction: Taxes can be overwhelming to someone who doesn't spend their days reading constantly changing tax laws and interpretation updates. We frequently prepare multi-year amended returns for people who come to us because they realize they paid too much tax when doing the returns themselves, or had hired someone not fully trained to recognize and recommend tax savings strategies or deductions. (We also take on multi-year messes, for those that have multiple years to file. Don't know where to start? No problem - we do.)
We prepare federal tax returns for businesses, individuals, gift tax, trusts and estates -- 1040, 1120, 1120-S, 1065, 1041 as well as all the payroll tax returns. We understand the sometimes complex interaction of the 1120-S and 1065 with the owner's 1040.
We provide tax planning - the entity choice you make for your small business can greatly affect your tax liability! So can timing of transactions. The new 20% Qualified Business Income Deduction can be a benefit, but comes with many exceptions, particularly for upper income taxpayers. There are, for many taxpayers, ways around this by structuring your business properly.
We also prepare Washington State tax returns, such as SUI, L&I, excise, sales and use tax. This field, too, has become much more complex, with nexus rules in and outside of Washington requiring more skill to navigate.
We have experience with Department of Revenue (and other agency) audits. Our best result: last year we were hired by a client who was billed $14,000 by DOR. When we were done with our corrections to DOR's audit and submitted our final report, DOR instead mailed our client a refund check for $24,000+. (This is NOT typical! But just accepting DOR's audit bill can cost you a great deal.)
With Brooke's past experience as controller in private industry through economic ups and downs (manufacturing, land development and construction, rentals, entertainment, computer information services) in addition to years of experience in public accounting, she understands the full spectrum of demands, both financial and nonfinancial, that you face. Brittany was formerly controller in the restaurant industry, and has years of experience assisting small business owners in many service industries and direct sales. We specialize in easing you through the maze with as much or as little help as you want at affordable rates.
We strongly encourage you to do as much as you can on your own! We like to make sure you have the critical facts before you put in the time to do your own bookkeeping. However, we offer our Stress-Free Accounting/Tax package of services at a discount off our a la carte rates. You choose from the menu of services and they're all included in a monthly auto-pay fee. Plans start at $300/month with a setup fee refundable after a year of continuous service. A la carte bookkeeping starts at $55/hour. (Since we want to give you all the attention you deserve, we suspend taking new Stress-Free Plan clients during 1/16-4/30 each year while we're focused on tax season demands. We re-open for Plan clients May 1st. However, a la carte services ARE currently available!)
Off-season discounts apply for projects done June-August and November-December.
It's so much easier (and cheaper) to get everything set up correctly from the start. Even if you plan to maintain all the bookkeeping yourself, contact us at the beginning of your business setup. It could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in database cleanup and DOR or IRS audit overcharges. We have 2 QuickBooks ProAdvisors, plus staff experienced in Xero and Wave.
Simply put - running a small business means you have a daunting number of rules and deadlines to follow for compliance. We can take some of that pain away AND coach you on how to minimize your taxes at the same time.
And if you DON'T have a business? We can help you with personal tax preparation and coaching, too! It's all part of the same big picture - minimizing that check to IRS and maximizing the refund FROM IRS.
