Services
Scope determines price, and scope is measured in many ways. A return carrying one W-2 and a resident state filing is a different scope of work from one carrying three states, an S Corp and a foreign trust. What follows is the range.
Tax preparation
Level 1
Main Street and Wall Street. A federal return and whatever state and local returns the year requires, with wages, interest and dividends, brokerage activity, retirement distributions. Optimizing between standard and itemized deductions. Multi-state and part-year filings are handled within the engagement, including the credits that stop two states taxing the same dollar.
Level 2
Businesses and more complex investments. S Corps, partnerships and single-member LLCs. The entity return, the K-1s that come off it, and the filing obligations attached to the structure. Where the structure no longer suits the business, we will say so. An election made three years ago on someone else's advice is worth re-examining. Niche or high-complexity credits and deductions fall in this category too. Think: cryptocurrency theft loss and other involuntary conversions, AMT, options trading.
Level 3+
The wild world of cross-border tax. Non-resident and dual-status filings, treaty positions, and the information reporting under FATCA. This is where forms proliferate: the foreign tax credit and foreign earned income exclusion (1116 and 2555), PFIC reporting (8621), foreign corporations and partnerships (5471 and 8865), foreign trusts and their annual returns (3520 and 3520-A), specified foreign financial assets (8938), and FBAR filings through FinCEN's BSA system. Australian and Spanish tax matters are a particular strength, but Wyntax can take you around the globe.
Resolution
Notices, letters and prior-year filings and amendments. This includes work on returns prepared elsewhere. Amended returns, late filings, and correspondence with federal and state authorities. Notices carry deadlines, and the number of available options declines as those deadlines approach (or pass).
Planning
Entity selection and reasonable compensation, timing of income and deductions, estimated payments, and the tax consequences of decisions that have not been made yet. This is the work that should happen before December to be worth a dime.
Pricing
Fees are quoted per engagement rather than published as a list. Two returns that look identical from the outside can require different amounts of work. Tell us what you’re working with and you will get a quote before work begins.
Additional returns within the same household or ownership group are discounted as part of a broader engagement.
What we are not
Payroll administrators, bookkeepers, or auditors. Some matters are best handled by other specialists. We maintain a list and will make the introduction.