Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
Tax Services
Do you have CPAs on staff? What's the difference between a CPA and an EA? As of January 2020, none of our staff hold a CPA license (Certified Public Accountant). However, we do have staff who hold the EA designation (Enrolled Agent). The EA designation is the highest credential that the IRS designates directly, granting our team full authority to practice in all tax matters including tax preparation, resolution and representation in every State. The main difference between an EA and a Certified Public Accountant is that the EA designation grants us full authority with the IRS, but no authority with the SEC (while CPAs have both). This means that unless you own a publically traded company, we can likely serve all your accounting needs
What are your rates and pricing? For tax-related services, we bill our work hourly for time spent on preparation, resolution or representation. Effective May 1st, 2020, our Standard Hourly Rate for NEW clients is $250 per hour with a 1 hour minimum per return. If you require expedited services, our Expedited Hourly Rate is $375 per hour and there is a 1 hour minimum per return.
For bookkeeping and other administrative services, we can customize a package that can be either flat rate or hourly depending on your needs.
Can your team help with my retirement and investment accounts? While we can generally help you to understand the tax consequences of transactions related to retirement and investment accounts, we are not licensed to advise on any retirement or investment vehicles. We do, however, have very qualified partners to refer our clients to when it comes to these types of matters.
Who works on my tax return? Each return is touched by multiple people in our office, which helps us to ensure a high quality of service for all of our clients. Kaleigh and Gary, our two Enrolled Agents, are responsible for the initial client interviews and final review of all documents. Then, an Associate is assigned to prepare the return and may ask additional questions of you during that process. Once they believe that the return is complete and accurate, it is then returned to Kaleigh or Gary for review and finalization.
How long will it take to complete my return? Returns are completed on a "First In, First Out basis" and we aim for a 2-week turnaround once we have all of the necessary information to complete our work. Tax returns are not considered "In" until we have 100% of the information needed to complete the entire return.
What are acceptable ways for me to send you my documents? We love paperless transmission whenever possible, so we encourage you to use our client portal to upload documents to our team. It's secure, and our entire team is notified whenever you upload items so you don't need to worry that it might get missed. You can also fax information to 720-214-1738 or have physical documents delivered to our office.
We do not, however, accept documents via email or text message. This is not secure and we recommend you avoid sending any documents that have private information like SSNs or EINs, even when in password-protected documents.
What are your company deadlines? 2020 CSA Accounting Deadlines:
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January 17th, 2020: Last day to request service for issuing W2s or 1099s at Standard Hourly Rate
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January 24th, 2020: Last day to request service for issuing W2s and 1099s at Expedited Hourly Rate.
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January 31st, 2020: IRS deadline for issuing W2s and 1099s.
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February 4th, 2020: First day for In-Person Tax Appointments (please book ASAP, our calendars fill quickly).
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February 21st, 2020: Last day to provide information for Partnership or Corporate Tax Filings (information provided after this date will be accepted if the tax return can be extended and filed after the March 15th deadline).
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March 6th, 2020: Last day to notify us of Partnership or Corporate extension needs.
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March 16th, 2020: IRS deadline for Corporate or Partnership Tax Filing. Returns or Extensions must be filed by this date.
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March 25th, 2020: Last day to provide information for Individual Tax Filings (information provided after this date will be accepted if the tax return can be extended and filed after the April 15th deadline).
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April 3rd, 2020: Last day to notify us of Individual extension needs.
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April 15th, 2020: IRS deadline for Individual Tax Filing. Returns or Extensions must be filed by this date, and all payments are due.
Why can't you answer my questions about my DIY return? I want to do my taxes myself but just need a little help. The short answer is: Insurance. Here's the longer answer: We have extensive insurance in place to protect our clients on all the work that we complete. We're protected for general liability, cyber liability, professional liability, errors and omissions, etc. However, there is not coverage for "advice" given to someone who isn't a client. Unless it's our firm's name and signature going on the prepared return, we don't have any protection and therefore can't offer "advice only" or a "second opinion" as a service.
Do I have to provide all of my original tax documents? Yes, we need to be able to visually verify any supporting documents related to our tax return preparation. This helps us to eliminate errors and is also for liability reasons. We cannot accept information verbally or in copies that are not legible. Once our work is completed, we scan all supporting documents and return the originals to you. Original documents not picked up by you 30 days after our work has been completed will be mailed to the address we have on file.