Notes

A notice is a specific question about a specific year. The first job is to read it, not to answer it.

Bring the letter, the year it names, and anything you already sent back. We will say, in ordinary words, what it is asking and what it is not asking.

We do not guess a missing figure so a reply can go out faster. If a number is not in the papers, the next step is to ask for it.

If a response is part of the work, you read it before it is sent. The fee for that work is named in the letter we send you first.

The first year is when the books and the return most often drift apart. Sales were collected one way. Expenses lived in a personal account. The return then has to be built from memory.

We would rather start from the books, even a rough set, than from a stack of guesses. If the books are not ready, we say so, and we name what is missing.

The company’s return and the household’s return are not the same job. If both need to be filed, that is two pieces of work, and the letter says so before we begin.

We do not form the company, and we do not choose the entity. We prepare the return for the year you had. The books, if they are to be kept, are a separate agreement.

The deadline is a date. The set-aside is the money that should be there before that date.

We look at what you expect to earn, what has already been withheld or paid, and the date you are watching. Then we write the amount and the date on one note.

It is an estimate. If the year changes, the note changes. We do not treat it as a promise of a refund, and we do not wait until the return is finished to mention it.

If the books are being kept, the set-aside comes from them. If they are not, it comes from what you can actually show us.

The year, and the question. That is enough to begin.

For the return: last year’s return, and the forms you already have. For the books: the accounts where the money moved. For a notice: the letter, all of its pages.

Originals stay with you. You send copies. If a page is missing, we ask for that page. We do not fill the gap.

You do not need a speech. The folder you have been putting off is the right place to start.