How it works
Seven steps, and you’ll know where you are in all of them.
Everything happens remotely. Video call, secure portal, electronic signature. You will never drive anywhere, sit in a waiting room, or hand a stranger a folder across a desk.
And you’ll always talk to me. Not an assistant, not a preparer you’ve never met, not an offshore team. The person who does your return is the person on the call.
The process
1. We talk
Twenty to thirty minutes on a video call. Mostly me asking questions. What your situation looks like, what changed this year, what’s been bothering you. You’ll get a straight answer about whether I’m the right fit and roughly what it will cost.
If you’d like me to look at something properly rather than talk in generalities, the return review is the paid version. I read last year’s return and send you a written summary of what I’d have done differently. Some people start there instead.
If I’m not the right person for you, this is where I say so, and where I point you at someone who is.
2. Engagement letter and deposit
I send a written engagement letter setting out exactly what I’m doing, exactly what I’m not, and a fixed fee. You sign it electronically. No printing, no scanning.
Half the fee is due at signing and the balance before your return is filed. That’s normal practice and it protects both of us. You know the total before anything starts, and I’m not chasing an invoice after the work is done.
If the scope changes, say you mention a rental property I didn’t know about, or a year that was never filed, I tell you before I do the work rather than after. You’ll get a revised letter and a revised number to approve.
3. You upload your documents
You get access to a secure client portal and an organiser listing exactly what I need for your situation. Upload from a computer or photograph documents with your phone. Either is fine, provided the whole page is legible.
You don’t have to have everything at once. Upload as things arrive and I’ll tell you what’s still outstanding.
Everything goes through the portal. Never email. There’s a section further down explaining why that matters more than people assume.
4. I do the work
I prepare the return, and I’ll usually come back with a few questions. That’s a good sign rather than a bad one. The questions are where the money is. A repair that was really an improvement, a basis nobody tracked, a deduction you didn’t know existed.
If I find something significant, you hear about it while there’s still time to do something, not in a summary after filing.
5. We go through it together
Before anything is filed, we get on a video call and I walk you through the return. What the numbers are, why they are what they are, what changed from last year, and what I’d suggest doing differently next year.
This is the part most firms skip, and it’s the part that’s actually worth something. A return emailed to you with a signature page attached tells you nothing. Half an hour going through it means you understand your own finances better than you did before.
It’s also where planning starts. Most of what saves people money is decided in the following year, not in the return we’re looking at.
6. You approve it and I file
You sign the authorisation electronically and I transmit the return. You get confirmation once the IRS accepts it, usually within a day, along with a complete copy for your records.
If you owe, I’ll tell you exactly how and when to pay, and set up a payment plan if you need one. If you’re getting a refund, I’ll tell you roughly when to expect it.
7. And then I’m still here
The final invoice is settled before filing, so there’s no bill arriving afterwards.
What happens after is the part that matters. If a letter arrives from the IRS in August, send it to me. If you’re thinking about selling something in October, ask before you do it. If your situation changes, tell me while it’s changing.
Reasonable questions between returns are included. I’d much rather answer a two-minute question in June than fix a problem in April.
What I’ll need from you
You’ll get an organiser tailored to your situation, so you won’t be guessing. This is roughly the shape of it.
Almost everyone
- Last year’s tax return, which is the single most useful document you can send me
- Photo ID
- Social Security numbers for everyone on the return
- Any W-2s and 1099s
- Bank details for a refund or payment
- Any letters from the IRS, opened or not
If it applies to you
- Business books, or the bank statements if there are no books
- Depreciation schedules for any property or equipment
- Brokerage statements and consolidated 1099s
- K-1s, all of them, including the late ones
- Closing statements for anything bought or sold
- Rental income and expense records
- Crypto exchange exports and wallet addresses
- Foreign account details and foreign income
- Mortgage interest, property tax, charitable giving
If you don’t have something
Say so. Missing records are the single most common reason people put this off for years, and they’re usually the easiest part to solve.
Once you authorise me, I can pull transcripts from the IRS showing everything that was reported about you. W-2s, 1099s, interest, dividends, retirement distributions, stock sales. For a lot of people that’s most of the return recovered without finding a single piece of paper.
You do not need to arrive organised.
How long does it take?
Measured from when I have everything, not from when you first got in touch. These are typical rather than guaranteed, and I’ll give you a real date once I’ve seen what’s involved.
| January to April | Rest of the year | |
|---|---|---|
| Individual return | 2 to 3 weeks | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Individual with investments or rentals | 3 to 4 weeks | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Business return | 3 to 4 weeks | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Return review and written summary | 1 to 2 weeks | 1 week |
| IRS investigation phase | 1 to 2 weeks | 1 week |
| Bookkeeping cleanup | Quoted per job | Quoted per job |
If you’re up against a deadline, tell me at the start. I can usually work around a closing date, a loan application or a court date if I know about it early. I can rarely do it if I find out in the last week.
And if the deadline genuinely isn’t reachable, an extension is a normal, penalty-free thing that buys six months to file. It doesn’t extend the time to pay, so we’d estimate and pay what’s owed. But a good return filed in June beats a rushed one filed in April.
Why I won’t take your documents by email
People find this mildly inconvenient for about a week and then never think about it again. It’s worth the week.
Email is not encrypted in transit. A message sits in plain form on your provider’s servers, on mine, and on every system in between, more or less permanently. Your tax documents contain your Social Security number, your children’s Social Security numbers, your income, your bank details and your address. That is essentially a complete identity theft kit in one attachment.
Tax professionals are also required to maintain a written information security plan and to safeguard client data. Emailing returns around would breach that, and firms do get in trouble for it.
So everything goes through the portal. Encrypted in transit and at rest, access controlled, and nothing sitting in an inbox waiting to be found. Uploads take about as long as attaching a file to an email.
Two other things while we’re here. I’ll never ask you for a password, a seed phrase, or login credentials to any account, and nobody legitimate will. And if you get an email that looks like it’s from me asking you to wire money or click a link to verify something, phone me before doing anything. Tax season is high season for that particular fraud.
A few practical things
Paying
Card or bank transfer. Half at signing, half before filing. No hourly meter running while you decide whether it’s safe to ask a follow-up question.
Where you live
Doesn’t matter. The Enrolled Agent credential is federal, so I work with clients in every state and with Americans abroad. I’ll work around your time zone.
Switching to me
Easier than people expect. You don’t need permission from your current preparer and you don’t have to tell them anything. Last year’s return and any depreciation schedules are all I need.
If something goes wrong
If the IRS questions a return I prepared, I handle the response. That’s what the Enrolled Agent credential is for.
Ready when you are
Start with a conversation, or with a paid review of last year’s return if you’d rather I looked at something real first.