Frequently Asked
Questions

Bring your prior-year return, all W-2s and 1099s, mortgage and property tax statements, records of any charitable contributions, and documentation for any major life changes (marriage, new child, home purchase, etc.). If you own a business, bring your year-end financial statements as well.

Estimated payments are generally due in mid-April, June, September, and January of the following year. If you're self-employed or have significant income without withholding, we'll help you calculate the right amount for each installment.

It depends on your profit level, how you pay yourself, and your overall business goals. An S-corp election can reduce self-employment tax for many owners, but it also adds payroll and filing requirements. We can run the numbers for your specific situation before you decide.

As a general rule, keep tax returns and their supporting documents for at least seven years. Records tied to real estate or investments should be kept as long as you own the asset, plus several years after you sell it. See our record retention guide in the Tax Center for a fuller breakdown by document type.

A bookkeeper records day-to-day transactions — deposits, bills, reconciliations. A CPA is licensed to prepare and sign tax returns, represent you before the IRS, and provide higher-level tax and financial guidance. Many clients use both, working together.

Don't ignore it, and don't panic. Most IRS notices are routine and resolvable. Send us a copy as soon as you receive it — we can review what it's asking for and, in many cases, handle the response and any direct communication with the IRS on your behalf.

If you use part of your home regularly and exclusively for business, you may qualify for a home office deduction, whether you're self-employed or run a small business from home. The rules are specific, so it's worth reviewing your situation with us before claiming it.

It depends largely on whether you expect to be in a higher or lower tax bracket in retirement, and whether you want the deduction now or tax-free withdrawals later. We're glad to walk through the trade-offs as part of your overall tax and retirement planning.

Cloud-based access lets you and your team see up-to-date numbers from anywhere, and it makes collaborating with your accountant far easier than emailing files back and forth. We help clients evaluate whether Online or Desktop is the better fit for how they work.

Even a small business benefits from getting the books right from the start — it's far easier (and cheaper) to set things up correctly than to untangle a mess later. We work with businesses of every size, from solo owners to multi-location companies.

An audit provides the highest level of assurance on your financial statements and involves the most testing; a review provides limited assurance through analytical procedures; a compilation simply presents management's financial data in proper form, with no assurance. Lenders and investors often specify which one they require.

Please don't email sensitive documents like tax returns or bank statements as plain attachments. Use our SecureSend option or your client portal, or call the office and we'll arrange a secure way to get your documents to us.

Coverage should be based on what it would cost to rebuild your home, not what you paid for it. Look for a replacement-cost policy so repairs aren't reduced for depreciation. If you're in a flood-prone area, that's a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program — standard homeowner's coverage doesn't include flood damage.

Often, yes — many carriers knock 5 to 15 percent off your premium when you insure a home and vehicle with the same company. It's worth asking, but still compare the bundled price against separate best-in-class quotes before assuming it's the better deal.

Deductibles typically start around $250. Raising it lowers your premium, but choose an amount you could comfortably cover out of pocket if you ever needed to file a claim.

You're entitled to a free report from each of the three major bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — every year through annualcreditreport.com. We recommend pulling at least one a year and reviewing it line by line; errors are common and can quietly affect a mortgage or loan approval down the road.

Dispute it in writing directly with the credit bureau that issued the report, and send it by certified mail so you have proof. Bureaus generally have about 30 days to investigate; if the error's confirmed, it should be corrected across all three.

Give it at least six months between new applications. Every inquiry gets logged, and a flurry of applications in a short window can read as a red flag rather than a sign of creditworthiness.

FDIC insurance covers up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category — so a joint account and an individual account at the same bank can each carry their own coverage. Money market funds and annuities purchased through a bank aren't covered the same way, so it's worth knowing which of your accounts fall under that umbrella.

Monthly maintenance fees, per-check charges and ATM fees add up quickly, so ask about all three up front. If you're sitting on a larger balance, a money market account often earns more than a standard checking account while still giving you reasonable access to the funds.

It can be — instead of a bounced check, the bank pulls from a linked line of credit, typically at a lower cost than a standard overdraft fee. It's opt-in rather than automatic, so make sure you've actually enrolled if you want it.

Once your equity crosses roughly 20% of the home's value — through paydown, improvements or appreciation — you can typically request cancellation. You'll usually need to ask in writing and may need a fresh appraisal along with a clean payment history.

If there's no prepayment penalty, extra principal payments generally make good financial sense — but only after you've got an emergency fund in place and any high-interest debt handled. For some clients, other uses of that cash make more sense; that's worth running by us before you decide.

A fixed-rate mortgage keeps your payment the same for the life of the loan, which is the safer choice if you plan to stay put. An ARM usually starts with a lower rate and can make sense if you expect to move or refinance within a handful of years, but it carries real risk if rates climb.

For the overwhelming majority of estates, no — the federal exemption is set high enough that most estates never pay a dime, and anything left to a U.S.-citizen spouse or a qualified charity is exempt regardless of size. Because the exemption amount changes from year to year, we confirm the current threshold before making any assumptions for your plan.

No — Florida is one of the states with no separate estate or inheritance tax, which is one reason it's a popular state of residency for estate planning. If you split time between Florida and another state, establishing legal residency here can matter for exactly this reason.

You can gift a set amount per person, per year, free of gift tax, and unlimited amounts to a U.S.-citizen spouse or a qualified charity. Gifts beyond the annual exclusion count against your lifetime exemption rather than triggering an immediate tax — but the numbers should be run with us rather than assumed.