Frequently asked questions

We are an accounting and advisory firm serving US businesses, accounting and CPA firms, and individuals and families. Our work covers bookkeeping and accounting, payroll, US tax, financial statements, audit support, CFO-level advice and medical billing. The full range is set out under our services.

Growing US businesses that outsource their finance function, accounting and CPA firms that need extra capacity, families and family offices, larger companies with specific projects, and US citizens and green card holders who live outside the United States. About Pi describes what we do for each.

Two people who know your affairs: a dedicated accountant, who handles the day-to-day work, and a named partner, who leads the engagement and reviews every deliverable before it reaches you. You are not passed between members of a rotating team.

No. Pi is an accounting and advisory firm, not a US CPA firm. Where US rules reserve work for licensed practitioners, compilation and review reports are issued under the applicable professional standards by an appropriately licensed practitioner, and formal representation before the IRS is undertaken by a practitioner authorised to practise before the IRS, such as a CPA, enrolled agent or attorney, under a power of attorney (Form 2848).

No. Pi is not a law firm. For wills, trusts, shareholder agreements and legal structures, we coordinate with your legal counsel: they advise on the law and draft the documents, and we provide the figures, the tax analysis and the records behind them.

Our US office is at 310 Newkirk Street, Jersey City, NJ 07306, and our office in Pakistan is at 45-B, 3rd Floor, PCSIR Phase 2, Main Service Lane, Lahore 54000. Meetings are held at our offices, at your premises or by video.

Federal and state returns for individuals, including US citizens and green card holders living abroad and non-resident aliens with US income, and for corporations, S corporations and partnerships, together with FBAR and FATCA reporting where it applies. Where returns have been missed, the IRS streamlined filing compliance procedures may offer a way to catch up. See US tax returns and FBAR and FATCA reporting.

Yes. Selling into a state can oblige you to collect its sales tax once your sales there pass the state's threshold, with or without a physical presence. We establish where you have nexus and from what date, register you where you need to be registered, and prepare returns on each state's calendar. See sales and use tax.

Yes. We check the notice against the return it concerns and your records, then draft a reply with supporting schedules for your approval before it is sent, together with any request for penalty abatement or an instalment agreement. Where formal representation is needed, it is undertaken by a practitioner authorised to practise before the IRS, such as a CPA, enrolled agent or attorney, under a power of attorney (Form 2848). See IRS representation.

We work out what each way of passing on your wealth would cost in federal and state estate and gift tax, and in any other country with a claim on it, and keep the accounts, registers and schedules the plan depends on. Your legal counsel drafts the wills, trusts and shareholder agreements; we supply the figures behind them and review the drafts to confirm they carry out the plan. See estate and succession planning.

No. An audit of a US company's financial statements must be performed by an auditor licensed in the United States, and independence rules would in any case prevent us from auditing a company whose books we keep. What we can do is prepare your records, schedules and reconciliations for your auditors and support you from planning to signing; see audit support.

Through arrangements that apply to every client: a written confidentiality agreement, access restricted to the partner and team working on your engagement, and documents exchanged through an encrypted client portal instead of as email attachments. The security and confidentiality page explains each one.

You do. Subscriptions are held in your name, the ledgers we maintain sit in your own system, and you decide who has access to it, including us.

Before any work starts, we verify who you are, and who ultimately owns and controls your business, as part of our anti-money-laundering checks. The documents are exchanged through the client portal and kept confidential.

Not without your agreement, unless the law or our professional obligations require a disclosure. Our website names no clients, and what we know of one client's affairs is never shared with another.

Yes. Professional indemnity insurance is maintained for our work, alongside the other standards that apply to every engagement: partner review of every deliverable, written confidentiality and identity checks before work begins. The about page describes them.