Your CPA is a historian. We work the calendar forward.
By the time a return is filed, last year's decisions are already made. We plan the ones that haven't been — for households with rental real estate, stock options, and RSUs, where the timing of a single decision can move the tax bill by five figures.
What closes with the year
- Option exercises and this year's AMT crossover
- Material-participation hours on every rental
- Placed-in-service dates and the first-year deduction
- Loss harvesting against realized gains
- Charitable gifts of appreciated shares
Where the tax code rewards planning most
Most of our clients earn $400,000 or more and hold at least one of these. Both are governed by rules where the answer depends less on what you did than on when you did it and how well you documented it.
Depreciation is the easy part. Getting to use it isn't.
Cost segregation, the passive-loss rules, real estate professional status, the short-term-rental position, and what recapture does to you on the way out.
- Cost segregation & bonus depreciation
- §469 passive loss planning — REPS and the STR position
- Material-participation hour logs that hold up
- Recapture, 1031 exchanges, and exit sequencing
The withholding on your RSUs is probably wrong.
ISOs and the AMT crossover, NSO exercise timing, RSU vest under-withholding, 83(b) elections, ESPP dispositions, and the basis error that makes people pay tax twice.
- ISO exercise-and-hold vs. AMT exposure
- RSU vest withholding gaps and estimated payments
- 83(b) elections — the 30-day window
- 1099-B basis corrections on Form 8949
A good fit looks like this
We are deliberately not a high-volume firm. The planning model works when there is enough at stake for a year of proactive work to pay for itself several times over.
Household income of $400,000+
Above this line the passive-loss allowance is gone, the 3.8% net investment income tax applies, and supplemental withholding on equity stops matching your bracket. That is where planning starts mattering.
Rentals, equity comp, or both
Owners of one or more rental properties, employees and executives with options, RSUs, or ESPP, and business owners running an S corporation or partnership alongside W-2 income.
You want a plan, not a filing
Clients meet with us during the year — before year-end, before an exercise, before a closing — and we prepare the return as the last step of the plan, not the first.
An honest note. We don't prepare returns as a stand-alone service. If you only need last year's return filed, we're not the right firm and we'll tell you so on the first call.
Three services, one calendar
Planning happens during the year. Projection happens before year-end. Preparation confirms that what we planned is what happened. Every client gets all three.
Tax planning
Standing engagement on a monthly retainer. We model the decisions in front of you — an exercise, a purchase, an entity change, a sale — before you make them, and we coordinate with your investment plan so the tax answer and the portfolio answer agree.
Tax projection
A full-year projection with time to act on it: estimated payments, withholding adjustments, loss harvesting, charitable timing, contributions, and whether an option exercise or property placement still fits inside this year.
Tax preparation
Federal, state, and entity returns prepared by the people who planned them. Form 3921 and 1099-B basis reconciled, elections attached, hours logs and cost-segregation studies on file before anyone asks.
Bring us this year's return and next year's questions.
A first conversation is a review of where you are and what is still movable. If we aren't the right fit, you'll leave with that answer too.