Tax Planning & Preparation Services

Tax Planning & Preparation

Encompass Financial Services, Inc., better known as EFS, provides customized advisory services to small, and mid-sized companies to support their business operations. These services are designed to alleviate some, or most, of the administrative burdens of running your business while simultaneously providing guidance on how to more effectively and successfully operate your company. This page is devoted to providing information on our Tax Preparation Services. If you’d like information on our Bookkeeping Services, Payroll Services, or Tax Resolution Services, please click on the appropriate link to be directed to those information pages.

Tax Planning Services

There is a tremendous difference between Tax Planning and Tax Preparation. In Tax Planning, we’re proactively working with you to take advantage of tax rules, regulations, and laws to reduce your income tax exposure in the first place. With Tax Preparation, our team is taking whatever economic activities have already happened and preparing a return based on those activities. Tax Planning should take place all the time throughout the year, whereas Tax Preparation is normally done once a year.

Typical Planning Questions Cover Areas Such As

Differences between Earned Income and Passive Income.
Differences between Long-Term Capital Gain and Short-Term Capital Gains.
Differences between Traditional IRAs and ROTH IRAs.
What kinds of retirement plans are Self-Employed taxpayers able to contribute to?
What is the Augusta Rule and can you take advantage of it?
If you’re Self- Employed, are you aware of how much Self-Employment taxes are going to be?
What is the difference between Income Tax and Self-Employment Tax?
Can I really itemize my charitable contributions and medical expenses on my tax return to my advantage?
How do rental properties affect my income taxes?
Can I deduct my child’s after-school care?
What is the difference between a Tax Deduction and a Tax Credit?

This is clearly not an exhaustive list, but it does allow you to see the myriad aspects of tax law that need to be discussed when planning out your tax strategies.

Tax Preparation Services

Now, the stress of preparing your personal, or business, tax returns can be enough to cause people to go bald. (I should know!) Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle this responsibility on your own! Our firm has highly skilled tax preparers, also known as Enrolled Agents, that can assist you with your personal returns, your business returns, or both.

When meeting with you about preparing your taxes, we’re going to discuss what kinds of income you received, what your marital status is, what children (if any) are going to be listed on your return, and so on. These questions guide us to a better understanding of your overall situation and influence how your return is prepared. For example, if you have a child that had a part-time job while still living at home, we’ll let you know if you can still claim the child on your tax return, or if that child must file independently. Please understand that we’ll only be asking personal questions that are absolutely necessary to properly and completely prepare your income tax return.

Thankfully, the tax deadline is only once a year, but that doesn’t diminish the stress taxes can cause. And, regardless of any tax strategies you’ve used, or didn’t use, our EAs will work very diligently to ensure you’re taking advantage of as many deductions and credits as you’re entitled to. Then, after the return is completed, we’ll sit down go over it with you so you can see how the return was prepared, and ask any questions.

Once your return is completed by our EAs, we’ll schedule a sit-down appointment with you to perform a Return Review where we go over the tax return line-by-line. We often find that most taxpayers have NEVER had their tax returns reviewed and explained to them, ever. They’re simply told that they either owe money or are due a refund. There’s no explanation on what tax credits were incorporated, or what deductions were ineligible (and why). At EFS, we feel that this Return Review meeting is an extremely important part of the process, especially since you’re signing off that you understand what’s being reported, that the return is representative of your situation, and that you’re in agreement with it. How can you attest to all that if you never went over the return?

Finally, we back up our work with our word that if we make a mistake, we’ll make it right at no additional cost to you. * No one is perfect, not even an Enrolled Agent, but we do strive to be as accurate as possible at all times. If a mistake should occur, and the IRS sends you a notice or letter, simply give our office a call and we’ll set up an appointment to research, review, and respond to the IRS.* (Please see our Tax Preparation Engagement Letter for specific details on our policies, including any service guarantees.)

As you can see, there is a LOT that goes into preparing your taxes each year, and with tax laws changing every year, it’s extremely important that your tax professional keeps up to date with all those changes. At EFS, our EAs go through no less than 24 hours of CPE each year. CPE classes cover topics such as ethical behavior, tax law changes, as well as multiple facets of tax regulations. We don’t do this just because it’s required – we do it to protect you, our Client. We do it to provide you with the best service, with the lowest legal tax burden.

So, now that you know some of what we do for our tax clients, take the next step and schedule an appointment with our awesome EAs – It’ll be a meeting you won’t soon forget! Our office phone number is (931) 919-2543. We look forward to hearing from you!

Tax Planning & Preparation Services