Our firm has the
resources, experience, and depth of knowledge to offer the
following services to both individuals and businesses. We can
deliver the services you need in a professional, fast, and
cost-efficient manner.
Accounting
Services
Our firm offers a wide range of accounting services, including
accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliation's
and payroll services. We also prepare custom financial reports
for internal, managerial use only.
Many small to medium size firms ( especially closely held and
those not publicly traded ) do not need a complete set of
financial statements including footnotes, a statement of cash
flow or a statement of retained earnings, etc... For these
business's, we recommend assembled or compiled financial
statements. These statements provide the bear bone information,
which includes only a profit & loss statement and a balance
sheet with no form of assurance. These statements can be
prepared on a monthly, quarterly, semiannual or any other basis
desired. You do not have to pay for monthly statements when you
do not need monthly statements.
For those on a smaller budget, we can help train your
accounting personnel to prepare a profit & loss and balance
sheet in house and we can periodically review their output,
making recommendations, adjustments and other changes, as the
situation warrants.
Buying &
Selling a Business
Since buying and selling a business involves many legal,
accounting and tax issues, it is highly recommended that both
the buyer and the seller, each employ his/her own CPA and legal
counsel. In any business sale, the selling price must be
allocated between the various categories of assets involved and
must be reported to the IRS by both the buyer and the seller.
For example, the selling price needs to be allocated between
fixed assets, inventory, goodwill, cash & cash equivalents and
supplies. These items should be allocated prior to closing
because what is a good allocation for the seller is not
necessarily a good allocation for the buyer. Many taxpayers
have been burned when filing their taxes because they did not
truly understand the implications of a proper allocation. In
addition, these amounts should never be arbitrarily
determined.
A buyer, should obtain a lot of financial and tax information
from the buyer before rendering a contract to purchase the
business. This may include copies of tax returns, payroll
returns, W-2's, sales tax returns, bank statements,
depreciation schedules and financial statements. A trained CPA
may be able to spot discrepancies and inconsistencies within
the data, which even the business savy person may overlook. In
the excitement of purchasing a new business, it is often easy
to overlook areas that should be addressed. For the seller we
can help determine a selling price and find discrepancies
before the buyer does.
Sales Tax
Services
Many states and municipalities have a sales or use tax. We can
review your internal prepared returns or we can file them on
your behalf. We may be able to change your frequency of filing
from monthly to quarterly or semiannually. We would like to
point out one additional point.Many business entities or
individuals are leasing personal assets ( such as a rental
property or office space ) to others. Many of these
transactions require the collection of sales tax in the State
of Florida and you may be inadvertently breaking the law. We
will advice you as to your requirements and file any necessary
returns. We may be able to abate the penalties that may be
assessed for failure to file these returns in a timely
manner.
Accounting
Software Selection
Whether your seeking to convert from a manual accounting system
to a computerized system or whether you are looking for an over
the counter business software product ( i.e.. Quickbooks,
Peachtree, One-Write Plus ) we are here to help. These software
products are inexpensive to purchase and easy to learn and use.
Why pay thousands for a customized software program? Most
small-medium size businesses weigh the cost benefit of these
programs and most end up using one of the over the counter
software packages. These programs will handle all of your
accounting, payroll, payable and receivable issues. These
programs are great for small business owners who would like to
input most of the data themselves or for the larger firms who
have adequate accounting staff to perform most of the functions
on your behalf. At the end of the month or the year, all you
have to do is forward your reports or a backup copy of your
company data to your accountant and they can now do their magic
with minimal additional work. We can install the software, set
up the company accounts and data, train the personnel and
monitor your progress. We are also available for in house and
for phone, technical support. You'll get the hands on help you
need by a local firm.
Accounting
& Tax Aspects of Starting a Business
Thinking of starting a new business or have you recently
started one? Starting a new business is exciting but there are
also many pitfalls as well. We can help advise you of the
things you should be doing and the things you should not be
doing to avoid potential problems with the IRS, the Florida
Department of Revenue or other taxing agencies that may apply
to your situation. What accounting records are required? Do you
have employees or independent contractors? Do you need a
Federal identification number, a sales tax number and what are
your licensing requirements? Should you incorporate or not?
What are legitimate deductions and what are questionable items?
We can help you answer these questions and many
more.
Tax
Planning
Most taxpayers have contact with their tax preparers once a
year when they file their taxes. In addition, most of these
people wait until the very last minute to assemble the
financial records necessary to prepare their taxes. For the do
it your selfers, you dread filing your taxes and most wait
until the last minute to get tax records organized. Both of
these groups are missing potential opportunities to cut their
tax liabilities. Oftentimes, these people, scramble to meet the
tax deadlines and miss deductions or credits for which they
might be entitled. For all taxpayers and business owners who
truly want to pay the least amount of taxes to Uncle Sam, two
things should be undertaken. First, each taxpayer should have a
systematic record keeping routine to keep their records
organized to ease the income tax preparation and to reduce the
chance of losing or misplacing receipts. Second, most taxpayers
should get with their tax preparer, at least once a year to
estimate and monitor opportunities to reduce your tax
liability. If your tax preparer is not available year round to
do this or if it does not offer this service, than you need to
switch preparers. We recommend as a minimum, that you undertake
this planning in October or November of each year. In any case,
we want to help you pay Uncle Sam the least amount of taxes
while staying compliant with all the tax laws that affect
you.
Computer
Consulting
Our firm will help you to maintain and safeguard your computer
equipment and accounting records, or we can help you choose an
accounting software to handle your accounting, payroll.
payables and receivables and related financial functions and
the related training of personnel or technical support on the
chosen software.
Bookkeeping/Write-Up
Our firm provides a full charge bookkeeping service including
general journal and subsidiary ledger maintenance, bank
statement reconciliation, payroll, and accounts
receivable/payable.Whether you need regularly prepared
financial statements, need assistance in any of the
aforementioned areas or need someone to monitor or review your
internal accounting staff, we can assist you.
Tax
Preparation
Almost anyone can prepare his/her own taxes, but do you get the
maximum refund or pay the least amount of tax? What potential
surprises or audit risks are you subjecting yourself to? Who is
going to give you advice for next year? What deductions did you
miss? What deductions did you take that you shouldn't have?
What may we be able to do that you don't know about? Will your
accountant be in business tomorrow? What will it cost you in
the future? What about the peace of mind of knowing the returns
were prepared accurately in the first place and that we stand
behind our work?
Our firm provides professional preparation of federal, state
and local tax returns at competitive, affordable rates. We will
review your return with you and explain to you what we did. We
will compare this years return with last year and look from
trends, inconsistencies and errors and we will give you advise
on what to do in the new year. We offer electronic filing and
direct deposit to ensure accuracy and quick
refunds.
Amended
Income Tax Returns
We can amend or revise any federal, state or municipality
business or personal income tax return. Amended returns occur
whenever there are errors, omissions or missed deductions in
previously filed returns. Since there is a statute of
limitations for filing amended returns, your accountant should
be notified whenever you discover an error or whenever you
receive a tax notice or inquiry. We customarily review prior
years returns prepared by other accountants to determine if any
discrepancies exist that may generate an additional refund on
your behalf. If for some reason it is determined that you owe
additional money, filing an amended return can reduce or
eliminate potential interest and penalties that could result if
the authorities catch the error before you do. We can amend any
return, even those we did not originally
prepare.
Cash
Flow & Budgeting Analysis
Have you ever asked the question, where does all my money go?
If you have, your not alone. Many successful and profitable
business owners have also asked this question at one time or
another. In this uncertain day and age, with increased
competition, a questionable economy and increased costs of
doing business, more and more business owners are seeking the
advise of CPA's and others, to help improve the bottom line.
Two useful tools in providing this guidance involves the use of
budgeting and cash flow analysis. We can also provide a
detailed comparison of income and expense items from period to
period. We may be able to spot unusual items such as cost
overruns, under billing on accounts, overcharging by vendors or
lost discounts. Based on our experience and background, we may
be able to spot things you or your employees may not be able
to. Many people do not understand all the areas that a CPA may
be able to help.
Consulting
Services
Our firm offers a wide range of consulting services to help you
improve your business, boost efficiencies and increase your
profits or reduce your losses. These services may include
safeguarding your computer systems or implementing financial
software, cash flow analysis, budgeting, ratio analysis, review
your system of internal controls, debt management, tax
planning, management advisory services and a wide variety of
other services.
Financial
Statements
Most small-medium size business's ( especially closely held and
non publicly traded companies) it usually is not necessary for
you need Reviewed or Audited Financial Statements. In these
cases we will produce Assembled or Compiled Financial
Statements for a fraction of the cost of the of the audited or
reviewed statements. These Assembled and Compiled Financial
Statements generally include only a Profit and Loss Statement
and a Balance Sheet of the enterprise. They omit footnotes and
most of the related financial statements ( i.e. Statement of
Cash Flows and Statement of Retained Earnings ) that if
included would provide more detailed financial information
about the company and we provide no form of assurance on them.
We will provide these statements on a monthly, quarterly or any
other frequency as desired. These statements are usually
provided for internal and management use with limited external
use.
Due to the extreme liability and legal issues involved with
Reviewed and Audited Financial Statements, our firm does not
directly issue these statements. We have made arrangements with
a reliable, local CPA firm that we have been associated with in
the past, to prepare these statements on behalf of any of our
clients that may need or want these financial statements.
Reviews would be the next level above Compilations and Audits
would provide the best level of assurance as to the accuracy of
the financial statements.
Tax
Services
We offer a full range of tax planning and tax preparation for
business and individual entities alike. No return is too hard
or too complex. We prepare the simplest to extremely
complicated returns. We can prepare your IRS return and you can
prepare your state return or you can prepare the IRS return and
we can prepare your state return. If you insist on preparing
your own return let us review it before you file it. We can
review previously filed returns, even those filed by others and
those filed by yourself, and if errors are spotted we may be
able to file an amended return and get you a refund. If we find
errors that will increase your tax liability, we can provide
advice on what you should do. We also can help you determine if
you are required to file returns for other states or
jurisdictions that you may not be aware of and help non
resident aliens to determine their US filing
requirements.
Choosing
the Right Business Entity
Before you start a business or purchase an existing business,
you must choose the correct tax entity based on your individual
situation. Should you become a sole proprietor, a C
Corporation, an S Corporation, a partnership, an LLC or any of
the many hybrids of the above? Many lawyers will incorporate
you no matter what or will choose the entity type they are most
familiar with. Unfortunately most lawyers are not tax lawyers
and are unfamiliar with the many tax implications of the
various entities. If you need to incorporate, we will advise as
such. If you don't need to incorporate, we will tell you that
as well. What entity you choose today will affect you for years
to come. Although you may be able to change your business
entity down the road, it is often more costly and time
consuming than choosing the right entity in the beginning. If
you have already chosen your tax entity but have not consulted
a CPA or other tax professional, please consult one, as soon as
possible. It is imperative that you obtain competent advice in
the early stages to avoid major complications down the
road.
Debt &
Financial Services
Our firm believes that regardless of whether you are seeking
retirement planning, to restructure your debt, to increase your
life or disability insurance, to cut your taxes or to invest,
that each of these areas should be reviewed in conjunction with
a review of the others. Although attention to any of these
areas will most certainly improve your financial situation, you
will gain the most success when you implement policies that
involve all of these areas. We will act in a similar capacity
as that of your family doctor, by overseeing your overall
financial growth while working with your banker, lawyer, stock
broker, accountant or insurance agent in a team approach. We
are an independent third party that will make recommendations
based on your overall financial position and not based on the
commissions we receive. We do not currently hold investment or
insurance licenses, nor do we sell loan packages or offer legal
advice. We will work with these specialists to give you
guidance and to help you make sound financial decisions, for
today and for your future. If you do not currently have a
specialist in a specific area, we will provide you a list of
qualified professionals whom we have dealt with and believe
will give you the level of service you need and
deserve.
Reviews
and Compilations
See section under Financial Statements.
IRS and
State/Local Representation
As a point of introduction, generally only CPA's, Enrolled
Agents and Tax Attorneys can represent you before the Internal
Revenue Service and other tax bodies. Although, you can find
hundreds of individuals and firms, that may be able to prepare
your tax returns, if you receive a tax notice in the mail or
are selected for an audit or have another reason to contact one
of the various tax authorities, will the person or firm that
prepared your return be able to represent you? Are they
available year round to answer your questions and provide
assistance? In many cases, the answer may be no. If this were
to happen, would you know what to do? Even if you do know how
to respond, are you sure you are using all your options in the
best way possible or could you make matters worse? If your
smart enough to get professional help at this point, who do you
choose? How will you determine the firm to represent you? The
best thing for you to do,is to hire a qualified professional (
such as a CPA ) to be available, no matter what may happen in
the future. No one likes to be audited, but no one can predict
if or when you ever get audited or have any other tax issue in
the future. Be prepared today, for whatever may happen in the
future. In addition, since CPA's are required to take 80 hours
of continuing education every two years, we are assured to have
in our arsenal of up to date tax knowledge to be used on your
behalf.
Financial
Planning
Part of good financial planning usually involves recommending
insurance or investment products to our clients to meet their
needs. It is our belief that this is only part of sound
financial advice. ( Please refer to the section entitled Debt &
Financial Services for more information ). We generally will
prefer to work with your current financial advisors than to
recommend that you replace them. Only in the rare cases where
you do not have specific advisors or are unhappy with the ones
you have, would we attempt to recommend another. Each of these
other financial advisors have specialized training, experience
and resources that may not be available to any firm or
individual. We have chosen to work in the areas that we are
best suited for and to allow others to provide the guidance in
areas they are best suited for.
From time to time, it may be apparent that the advice given by
any of your financial advisors may differ from the advice given
by one of the others, such as our firm. If this should ever
occur, we will do our best to explain the pros and cons of each
position and help you determine the best course of action for
you. Remember, since we do not receive commissions or other
renumeration for specific recommendations other than our normal
billing fees, you are assured that we will give you an
objective, unclouded opinion. The final decision is yours to
make after you have weighed all the evidence provided. Isn't
this what your goal was in the first pla
Debt
Elimination
For those of you who believe that reducing your debt and your
debt payments is a major priority in your financial goals, than
we have an innovative plan that will help you to eliminate all
of your debts including your mortgage, in the shortest amount
of time ( usually 3-10 years ) on your present income while
providing a healthy nest egg for your future. We have had many
testimonials of the success of the system but one client in
particular had the following projected results. This client had
29 years to go on their 30 mortgage. They had an average amount
of other debts including credit cards and a car loan. My
placing them on this system it was projected that they could
save $ 168,079 in interest and have all of their debts paid off
in 9 years and 9 months on their present income. That is 19
years and 3 months sooner than had they continued to pay on
their mortgage for the next 29 years. In addition, if they were
to take the 19 years and 3 months that they will now have no
debt payments, assuming no additional debt is obtained,
investing this money at a 10% return, they would be able to
accumulate $ 1,604,778 during the same time frame. Is it ever a
wonder that people make so much money but have nothing to show
for it? Very few people ever achieve true financial
independence. With careful planning and analysis of your
retirement planning, debts, investments, etc... we can maximize
your net worth while achieving your financial goals.
Keeping
Current with the New Tax Laws
The Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 was the largest
single tax cut since the 1980's under then President Reagan.
The $ 1.35 trillion dollar tax cut will affect every taxpayer
in one way or another. Although the tax act includes across the
board tax rate reductions, an increase in the child tax credit
for parents with children under the age of 17, relief from the
marriage penalty,increase in the annual allowable contributions
to all retirement accounts including IRA's, 401 k's, Simple,
and Self Employed pension plans including an accelerated catch
up contributions for those 50 and over and an elimination of
the phase out of itemized deductions and personal exemptions
and over 1000 over tax changes, this massive tax cut will be
phased in over the next 10 years. In addition, Congress left
open the door to change these new laws again in the future,
should it become politically correct or necessary to do so. As
a result, in order to keep up with these changes, we must
consider the tax effect on each future year until the year
2010. Instead of simplifying the tax code, more and more
taxpayers will need to seek professional guidance to estimate
your taxes and to actually prepare them. Congress is currently
working on a massive 2003 tax bill, which will no doubt make
preparing taxes in 2003 more complicated. Seeking a tax
professional, is now more than ever a wise thing to
do.
Payroll
Services
Our firm offers complete payroll preparation and tax reporting
services. We prepare all federal and state returns relating to
your payroll on a timely basis. If you prepare your own payroll
in house, we can perform after the fact payroll services
including filing of payroll returns, W-2's and 1099's. We can
advice you on the latest withholding rates or we can prepare
your employees paychecks on your behalf, each payday. We can
assist you in determining whether leased employees may be of
benefit to you and whether you can get a better workers
compensation rate elsewhere. Do you know the IRS definition of
employee vs. independent contractor? Do you know ways to
legally hire your wife or kids to save on your taxes? Are you
doing anything that may get you in hot water? Are you filing
all the forms you should be filing? These are just some of the
areas where we may be able to make your life
easier.
Investment
Review
We can help to review your investment portfolio and look for
ways to improve it. If you have an investment advisor or
broker, we most certainly will work with them. Together with
them, or alone, if you do not currently have an investment
advisor, we will help you to determine if you are taking
advantage of tax deferred or tax free investments. We will
examine your tax situation and your debt and tailor a plan that
incorporates these in with your investing and retirement
planning. How old are you? Are you married or single? Do you
have any dependents? Any of these or hundreds of other
questions, if addressed could have an impact on your overall
strategy. Since we are not a licensed insurance agent or
broker, we can point you in the right direction and give you
advice but we will need to work with your broker and insurance
agent to select the specific products right for you.
The giving of financial advice is based on assumptions and
facts alike. Altering any or all these items could have a
devastating impact on your overall financial strategy if not
properly considered. As a result, we believe it is hard to
provide too much information but it is relatively easy to omit
pertinent advice because you do not understand all the
consequences of your actions. This is why working with a
professional is always recommended. Since any of these facts
and circumstances can change from time to time, it is strongly
recommended that review your goals at least once a
year.
Retirement
Planning
You are never too young to start planning for retirement. One
would be shocked to know how much wealth could be accumulated
by starting early in life. Putting a little money aside early
in life, will substantially surpass the growth of a lot of
money, later in life. The time value of money has been called
by Albert Einstein as one of the greatest, if not the greatest
wonder in the world. Some of the more common reasons for not
planning for retirement include the following. I can't afford
to save. I am young. I have plenty of time. Social Security
will be there for me. Financial experts have indicated that the
average person today will need between one and two million
dollars to retire at their current life style. Although this
sounds out of line, when you consider the projected annual
inflation rate of 3-4% per year ( and it likely will go up in
the future), the increased life expectancies of most
individuals, and the likelihood of up and down investment
returns, this amount is realistic. Most people have not started
to save for retirement and for those that have, its only a few
thousands. Even those who have pension plans at work, most will
not accumulate any where near the first million but probably
more like several hundred thousand. Only 4% of the population
will ever reach this number based on past statistics. Why do
you think so many people are still working past the normal
retirement age?
Services
Available
Below, please find a partial list of the many quality business
and personal services we offer to our clients and our
prospective clients. If there is an accounting or financial
service that you need that is not specifically listed, please
do not hesitate to contact us. Because we offer a wide variety
of valuable services, only a select few could be
highlighted.
A review of our many services along with the personal attention
we try to give each of our clients at an affordable price,will
hopefully convince you to give us a call.
State &
Local Municipality Tax Return Preparation
In addition to preparing the various Federal income tax
returns, we also prepare the necessary state and local
municipality tax returns that may be required for individuals
and business's alike. There are approximately 39 US states that
have a individual state income tax and many more have some sort
of corporate income tax requirements. If you have income in
more than one state you may have to file a return in more than
one state. If you moved to/ from a particular state during the
year, you may be required to file a part year income tax return
for one or more states. If you have a corporation in the State
of Florida or have a corporation that does business in the
State of Florida, you may be required to file a state corporate
income tax return. In Florida, you may have to file a corporate
or partnership Intangible Personal Property tax return or a
county Tangible Personal Property tax return if you have
physical assets used in your business, whether or not owned by
the business or any owner of the business. As an example, if
you had an Alabama S Corporation doing business in Florida, you
would have to file a Corporate Income Tax Return for both
Florida and Alabama and as an S Corporation shareholder, you
may have to file a both an IRS Form 1040 and an Alabama Form
40. It is never too late to check on your filing
requirements.