HOW WE WORK TOGETHER TAX PREPARATION
1. Gather your tax documents.
We will provide a Tax Organizer that lists income items and deductions that applied to you the previous year in your Karbon checklist or TaxCaddy.
- NOTE: If you are only missing a brokerage statement, K-1, or one piece of information, please go ahead and get everything else to us. Don’t wait for just one piece of late information.
2. Submit your documents to us in one of the following ways:
- Request a secure checklist by emailing office@abellatax.com and we’ll email it to you as soon as possible. Clicking the checklist in the email takes you to a secure page where you can safely and easily upload documents (in PDF format only, please).
- Use the TaxCaddy app to securely submit documents to us. This app allows you to use your phone to submit photos of your documents. It will also automatically retrieve documents for you if you link your accounts.
- Drop off at the office. Please call to confirm a good time to drop off documents in person.
- Postal mail. Our address is 19105-36th Ave W Ste 212, Lynnwood, WA 98036.
Please do not email tax documents. Email is not a safe way to transmit sensitive information. Based on IRS recommendations, we follow a no-click email policy, prohibiting staff from opening attachments to protect your information and ours.
3. Schedule your Wrap Appointment for 2-3 weeks from the day we receive your documents.
Appointments can be made by phone or abellatax.com. We will contact you to request any missing information we are aware of and will provide a draft of your return for review, if we feel it’s fairly complete. Please try to provide missing information more than 24 hours prior to your appointment.
4. Meet with your tax advisor, in person or by phone/Zoom.
This meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes. We will ask additional questions to ensure your return is correct and complete. We will go over your return with you to make sure you understand your tax situation. We will ask about 2022 and run a preliminary projection of the new year for you.
5. Sign your return.
You’ll have two options for signing your return:
- E-Signature – you’ll receive a link, answer questions to verify your identity (required by the IRS) and electronically sign.
- Paper signature – you’ll receive either a hard copy or electronic version of Form 8879 to sign and return. We can accept these signed documents by checklist, TaxCaddy, mail, or drop off.
6. We will e-file your return with the IRS when we have received your signature.
The IRS typically acknowledges the filing within 24 hours. Refunds are generally issued within 21 days. Refunds with refundable credits will be released no earlier than mid-February.
- If you owe, you may pay with a paper check, or electronically online at irs.gov/payments.
Please note: We do not automatically file extensions if we haven’t heard from you. Please let us know if you need an extension. An extension is an extension of time to file, NOT an extension of time to PAY.
DEADLINES:
January 10
last day for business owners to get information to us for 1099 filings (due January 31).
February 15
last day to get business information to us for a March 15 filing (partnerships and S corporations).
March 15
last day to get individual tax information to us for an April 15 filing Information received after these cut off dates will be incorporated as soon as possible, but may require an extension. If we are working on your file close to the deadline, we will file the extension for you automatically.
Extensions:
August 1
last day to submit information to us for all extended tax returns.
New this year – we require all 2022 returns to be complete by August 31.
If this is a problem, please let us know as soon as possible, so that we can make arrangements, possibly to help you transition to a more traditional firm. If your return is only incomplete due to a late K-1, that’s fine, but we need to have all of the rest of your documents and need to have completed your wrap meeting prior to August 31. Our firm is forward-focused on proactive planning and can’t effectively complete Fall 2023 planning if we’re still preparing 2022 tax returns and chasing clients for information. Thank you for understanding.
Information received after these cut off dates will be worked on as soon as possible, but please understand that your filing may be completed late.
Be aware that corporate (and partnership) returns carry at least a $200 per month, per shareholder/partner penalty for late filings, even though no tax is due.
Personal returns carry a late filing penalty of 5% of the tax due per month late up to 25% in addition to late payment penalties and interest. There are no penalties for filing late if you are due a refund.