Happy New Year Everyone!
A new tax season is upon us and we are excited to serve all of our clients-new and returning-over the coming months. As we kick things off, I wanted to share a little information to help our clients know the most effective ways to get information to our firm and what can be expected once that information is submitted. I feel like most clients WANT to be a good client and hope to help things move as efficiently as possible…they just don’t always know how! Please take a few minutes to watch the video below for some simple guidelines to follow when compiling and submitting your tax information.
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING TAX INFO:
- If submitting electronic documents (preferred method):
- Provide all documents in scanned PDF format
- No JPEGs, no iPhone photos of documents please!
- Please make sure PDFs are not password protected (or provide password if it cannot be removed)
- If submitting paper documents:
- Please remove all staples, paper clips, and Post-It notes prior to submitting
- Please do NOT submit (unless otherwise requested):
- Bank statements
- Credit card statements
- Check registers
- Receipts
- Assist us in summarizing all information – medical expenses, charitable contributions, job, moving expenses.
- Do not provide copies of receipts for these items, but please retain for your records.
- Please complete your tax organizers (new or returning clients) so that we have all relevant info we need to begin your return
- If you have self-employed (Sch C) or rental (Sch E) income, please complete our Excel-based organizers (feel free to request if not provided)
- The intent of these organizers is to assist you in providing the information we need in a concise, summarized format
- A QuickBooks file, financial statements, or other clean, organized format may be provided in lieu of this organizer
- We must charge for additional bookkeeping services if information is not totaled up and provided in this manner
- Please submit your tax information ALL AT ONCE when you have compiled everything
- A single submission allows us to practice better quality control and ensure everything makes it into your file
- Please use the SafeSend link provided by your accountant-in-charge (and select their name in the recipient list)
TIPS FOR TAX SEASON
- Over the course of tax season, we handle thousands of pieces of information for hundreds of clients. We have processes in place to ensure the safe and accurate handling of all of your information. However, you can greatly assist us by following the guidelines above in preparing and submitting your tax documents.
- We do not begin preparing returns until ALL information has been received. Once you submit your tax documents, your accountant-in-charge will perform a high level review of those documents and send you an email with questions about potentially missing information. Please be responsive this request as we cannot begin preparing your return until this information has been received.
- Please thoroughly review your return prior to signing. Your return is filed immediately upon receipt of your signatures, and there is a fee for amending returns. We are always available to walk through your return with you over the phone or in person to ensure you feel confident in the information we have used to complete the return.
- Our cutoff to provide information for filing a return by April 15th is no later than April 1st. Information for returns submitted after this date must be extended.
- We do not begin working on extended tax returns until at least May 15th. We use the month after tax season to catch up on other tasks, take much-needed vacation, and reacquaint ourselves with our families 🙂 If you cannot submit your information by April 1st, please expect it to be early summer before your return is completed.
- Tax season is a very intense time…please be respectful of the fact that everyone you are communicating with is working very diligently for long hours over several months. We appreciate your patience, graciousness, and understanding in your interactions with us.