HOW DO I PREPARE FOR A OFFICE, PHONE OR ONLINE ENGAGEMENT?

INSTRUCTIONS AND CHECKLIST OF ITEMS TO BRING

CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF OUR STOCKTON LOCATION

1. For 2026 (your 2025 tax returns), the base fee for an office appointment in Stockton is $980 for a thirty minute appointment. An hour appointment has a base fee of $1600. For a telephone appointment the base fee is $880, and for an online electronic engagement without an appointment, the base fee is $780. Again, these are base fees. Any additional services with additional fees will be added to these base fees. Please look at our fee schedule for costs in addition to the base fee. Additional fees are charged for rentals, businesses, certain forms and certain services.

 

2. As required by our professional liability insurance carrier, all new matters (for example, different tax years, tax types, people, or different entities) will require a new attorney-client agreement be established. Our carrier also requires that we respond to most types of inquiries in writing rather instead of giving advice over the phone so phone calls outside of scheduled conferences are rare.

 

3. Generally, you will receive a copy of your completed tax returns at the conclusion of your office appointment. For both telephone conferences and online engagements we will send documents using either Adobe Signature or the DocuSign systems However, because of the serious threat of identity theft, if it becomes necessary to send you a copy of any documents such as your tax returns after the conclusion of the office conference, we will send it to you via secure, encrypted link from our client portal (called SmartVault). And though we do not recommend using the US Mail to send documents, for an extra $35, a paper copy via Priority Mail with delivery confirmation is available. Please note that payment of our fees will be required before tax returns are provided or sent, and signed electronic filing forms must be returned to us before we are allowed by the IRS to electronically file the returns. The electronic returns are very secure and will be stored in the secure SmartVault client portal.   Under most circumstances, your documents will be accessible to you at any time in SmartVault without having to contact our office.

 

4. Our client portal is very secure, and uses bank-level encryption, so uploading confidential information securely is not a problem. We absolutely cannot guarantee physical security if you insist on not using our portal, and instead use standard email, fax, or worse of all, mailing documents through the postal service. In addition, we will not guarantee documents mailed to us will result in an on-time filing. Since we are providing a secure environment through our client portal, SmartVault, we will assume no responsibility for documents sent to us any other way. Over the years, we have horror stories of clients who ignored our warnings, and mailed documents to us, even using Certified Mail, which never arrived at our office. Another thing to realize is that we do not have an office staff and do not keep regular hours. So anything you send which requires our signature may never be successfully delivered and will be returned to you.

 

5. It is very important you are aware of our fees before engaging our services. Especially for clients with self employment income who have incurred large business losses, and who may believe our fees will be the same as a prior year where these losses were not present or were much smaller. Our rates are based upon the risk of being examined (audited) by the government. So, for example we assess the risk of an examination to be much greater if a business on an individual tax return (a sole proprietorship) shows a loss of $45,000 versus a business with a loss of only $4000. And small businesses with income of only a few thousand dollars will be much less at risk than a business with income over $100,000.  So even having no loss but large income may have higher risks.

 

6. This is why we ask you to look at the business fees here and determine what we may charge you.  The chances of an audit of any given tax return rises exponentially as the business loss amount rises, and our fees also rise very fast and very high because of the added risk factors we are discussing here. So if you feel our fees are too high, being aware of our rates in advance will allow you to find a tax preparer who will charge you what you feel is a more reasonable rate. We really want our clients to be happy, so we try to have there be no surprises. Click here for a full disclosure of our fee structure.

 

7. Important items to double check for accuracy are the routing number and account number to be used for direct deposit. These numbers are found on every tax return. On the topic of direct deposit of refunds, the IRS, following a recent directive by the President has gone full digital and will not issue paper checks for refunds.

 

8. If you are eligible (and most everyone is) we will file your returns electronically as soon as you approve the return by signing and returning the electronic filing forms, such as IRS Form 8879 or California Form 8879. You have the option to have any refund due direct deposited in the account of your choosing, or of splitting a refund between two accounts, but this will have to be arranged in advance of E- Filing the returns. We will need the bank routing number and the account number as well as the type of account (checking, savings, etc.). The best way to obtain the correct numbers is to read them off of a check.   Do not use a deposit slip since these routing numbers are often different . Using another source for the numbers may cause a problem, resulting in payments which become "lost" refunds which can only be found by a long and elaborate tracking enterprise. 

 

CHECKLIST OF REQUIRED INFORMATION FOR

OUR TAX RETURNS

Please have payment ready if you have an office appointment, since we will not release any tax returns until full payment is made. For telephone conferences or online engagements your base fees should have been paid, and any remaining fees will be billed through an invoice, which is usually sent with the tax return. Our fees  may be seen here

We have a secure client payment portal, and accept Master Card, Visa, American Express and Discovery.


SECURELY MAKE A PAYMENT HERE

 If you are a new client, or a returning client for whom we did not complete a 2024 tax return, a complete copy of the 2024 return, both federal and state is very important. In particular, be sure to include any depreciation schedules, so as to ensure continuity of depreciation on the preparation of your 2025 tax returns.

In describing any deduction, NEVER use the phrase “same as last year.” The IRS has recently sanctioned tax professionals and taxpayers who have done this because taxpayers must have independent substantiation for each year.

There is no longer a requirement under federal law to prove you and your dependents are covered by health insurance. Unfortunately, if you are a California resident you are now subject to the requirement to prove to the state you are covered by healthcare insurance. Consequently the same forms as required in the past, either a 1095-A or a 1095-B are required. The Form 1095-C is not used for this purpose. Of special importance is the Form 1095-A, since if you received any kind of subsidy from the governent for your healthcare insurance you will still be required to reconcile the subsidy with your income.

If you are a public safety, educational, small business/self-employed or medical professional, complete and bring the appropriate professional deduction checklist. Or, if none of these apply, use our general checklist to provide us with your important information along with copies of the required documents listed below.

 If you have a rental, look at our Rental Property Information and use the Rental Checklist. Failure to use this checklist may result in additional fees and/or a delay.

 If you bought, sold or refinanced real property, click here!

 If you have a sole proprietorship business, look at our business information use our business checklist. Failure to use this checklist may result in additional fees and/or a delay.

If you received compensation, either directly or through a cash-out, in an alternative form, including, but not limited to incentive stock options(ISO), non qualified stock options(NQSO), restricted stock, restricted stock units(RSU), an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) or an employee stock option purchase plan (ESOP) then be sure to include all relevant documents, including those provided by the employer as guidance for determining tax consequences. The final pay statement of the year is also useful in this regard.

 The settlement statement for any real property transactions (this statement is also called a HUD-1, or in recent years, a disclosure or settlement statement. Be sure you upload the final statement, since by law you will have also received an estimated disclosure statement which may not reflect the final numbers on the transaction.  

If you were involved in a foreclosure or short sale, bring any Forms 1099-A or Forms 1099-C you have received. In addition BE SURE TO BRING THE COMPLETED PROPERTY TRANSACTION ANALYSIS FORM. Get this Form Here. Without this form we cannot complete your tax return. If possible, send this form in advance as it may be very time consuming and cause a delay in finalizing your tax returns.

 Notify us if your bank account information for any direct deposit of refunds has changed from last year.

 Any brokers statements, labeled Form 1099-B, detailing sales of securities (including mutual funds or stocks). This form may also be part of what is referred to as a "consolidated Form 1099." If you have one of these statements, it is important you read the document at this link concerning the basis of any securities. Failing to be prepared for this could result in a delay of the completion of your tax return and an additional fee for our extra time.

 The date of birth and social security number for new children or other new dependents (such as a parent). If you are a new client, then we will obtain the social security numbers for other children from the prior year tax returns that we ask you to upload. We will still need the dates of birth of all dependents because this information will not be found on a prior year tax return.

  All Forms 1098 (mortgage interest paid or student loan interest paid).

  If you pay all or a portion of your own property taxes (as opposed to payment through a lender's impound account), we need the annual total. Please do not use a single tax bill for this purpose, as in California and some other states property taxes are paid on a fiscal year basis, so that to determine what was paid in 2025, for example, you have to add the second installment of the 2024-2025 tax bill to the first installment of the 2025-2026 tax bill. You deduct property tax when it is actually paid during 2025 and not when it is due. Supplemental property tax paid during 2025 is also deductible. If property taxes are paid by a lender through an impound account, then we do not need copies of any tax bill for that property.

 If you pay interest on a second home, but do not receive a Form 1098 (common with boats, timeshares and motorhomes), we need the name, address and taxpayer identification number (EIN) of the lender along with the amount of interest paid.

 All W-2’s (salary and wages) and Forms 1099-Rs (retirement distributions). If you received a Form 1099-R reporting a Roth distribution, and you see Code J in Box #7, this means the IRS will assume it is all taxable unless you have records as to how much money you contributed to the account. This will require research before the appointment or there will be a delay!

  If you are a retired public safety officer (fire, police, sheriff, federal law enforcement, CHP or CDCR peace officer) you are entitled to exclude (deduct) up to $3000 of medical premiums from your taxable retirement pay There is no longer a requirement that these insurance premiums be paid directly by the retirement system. 

 Amounts spent on childcare – including the name, address, telephone number and tax identification number (TIN) of the child care provider (this information is required to obtain these tax benefits). If your provider refuses to give you a tax identification number you will be unable to obtain this credit electronically. You will then have to explain to the IRS why this information was unavailable and then give the IRS as much information as possible about the child care provider.

 Educational expenses paid for you, a spouse or your dependents and grants or scholarships received. Be sure to include tuition and fees paid with student loans, as these are considered to be paid out of your pocket. Also indicate whether the education is for the first two years of post-secondary education or a later period. A Form 1098-T will be required in order to claim any educational benefit such as a deduction or a credit. If not mailed to you, this form is almost always available online in the concerned student's account access at the school. And be careful to report the amount actually paid during calendar year 2025, rather than the amount billed by the educational institution. This has become a heavily audited issue due to extensive reports of abuse.

 Advise us if you funded a traditional or a Roth IRA during the year and how much was contributed.

 The amount and name of the charity to which any donations of property were made. We are warning you now, that to support these deductions in the event of an audit you must have an itemized list of what was donated, the value of these items, and the source of the value. If this is used property, use low end values unless you have evidence supporting a higher value. If you donated a vehicle, and the charity sold the vehicle for more than $500, bring the Form 1098-C the charity should have issued. A copy of this form must be sent to the government or the vehicle donation will be limited to $500.

 Bring with you any acknowledgment letters, pay statements and receipts showing the amount of any cash, check, or payroll deducted charitable contributions. Remember receipts/canceled checks are now specifically required by statute to substantiate cash donations. There is no longer such a thing as “cash in the collection basket,” unless the cash is in a numbered envelope accounted for by the church or charity. We need to see the actual proof of these donations to ensure the documents are supportable in the face of the current IRS enforcement policy. In addition, we are now personally subject to sanctions for reporting charitable contributions on a tax return we prepare if these deductions cannot be supported under audit.

Raffle tickets, even for a charitable purpose are not deductible. The IRS and the Tax Court view raffle tickets as the purchase of a chance rather than as a donation. For items purchased at a charity auction, or for crab feeds, or for charity golf tournaments you may only deduct money paid which is more than the value of the items or services received. Political donations are never deductible for California residents. Charitable contributions to, or for a specific individual, or groups of individuals, are never deductible. The organization must be listed as a qualified charity on the IRS website in order to be deductible. CLICK HERE for the IRS online tool to verify Qualified Charity status.

 The amount of deductible DMV fees paid. This is only the portion of the DMV fees labeled as “vehicle license fees” and not any other part of the overall DMV registration cost. Smog fees and drivers license fees are not deductible.

 Any other tax documents not covered above or an explanation of special circumstances (death, inheritance, adoption, divorce, marriage, etc. relevant to your tax status.

Public safety, educational, self-employed/small business or medical professionals, use the current 2025 checklist and read the comments carefully. These employee expenses are no longer deductible under federal law, but remain deductible for your California tax returns.