Services · Tax
Outsourced tax preparation
Preparation capacity for accounting and CPA firms: returns built in your tax software, tied out to the trial balance and ready for review. Your firm keeps the client and signs.
Returns that arrive ready to review
A draft return reaches your reviewer in one of two states: ready to review, or ready to be reworked. Our job is to make it the first. We prepare US federal and state returns for accounting and CPA firms on a white-label basis, in your tax software and your formats, and nothing we produce reaches your clients except through you.
Your firm keeps the client relationship, reviews each return, signs it and files it. A Pi partner supervises the engagement and reviews every batch before it is released to you.
Returns we prepare
Federal returns for individuals and the three main types of business entity, with the state returns that follow from them.
Individuals (Form 1040)
Investment income, capital gains on Form 8949 and Schedule D, sole proprietorships on Schedule C, rental property on Schedule E and K-1 income from pass-through entities and trusts, with Forms 1116 and 2555 for clients who live or invest abroad.
C corporations (Form 1120)
Book-to-tax differences reconciled on Schedule M-1 or M-3, a Schedule L balance sheet that agrees to the trial balance, depreciation on Form 4562 and a record of estimated payments.
S corporations (Form 1120-S)
Shareholder K-1s, Schedule M-2 with the accumulated adjustments account, and the stock and debt basis schedules your clients need for Form 7203. Owner salaries that look low against distributions are flagged for you.
Partnerships (Form 1065)
Partnerships, LLPs and multi-member LLCs: K-1s with capital accounts on the tax basis, Schedules K-2 and K-3 where international items arise, Form 8825 for rental real estate, and section 707(c) payments kept apart from distributive shares.
State returns
Corporate, pass-through and individual state returns built from the federal return, with apportionment workpapers and composite or non-resident filings for owners where a state requires them.
What your reviewer receives
A file organised the way your reviewer would have organised it, so that review time goes on judgement rather than arithmetic.
- The draft return in your software, with diagnostics cleared or explained
- A trial balance tie-out mapping every account to a line of the return
- Book-to-tax adjustments, each with its calculation and source
- A roll-forward of carryovers: losses, credits, depreciation and basis
- Review notes on estimates, elections and positions that need your decision
- Open questions for the client, written so that you can forward them unchanged
How a season runs
Agreed before the first deadline, then run in batches through to the last extended return.
Scope and volumes
Return types, expected volumes, the dates records will reach us and the order in which batches come back, agreed in a written scope.
Access on your terms
You grant access to your tax software and document system, and can withdraw it at any time. We work to your checklists and review standards.
Preparation and partner review
Each return is prepared, tied out and documented, then reviewed by a Pi partner before it is marked ready for you.
Your review and sign-off
Your reviewer clears our notes and sends points back through the portal. Routine queries are answered within one business day.
Capacity through busy season and extensions
Agreed before the season begins, not found in the middle of it.
For calendar-year clients, partnership and S corporation returns fall due in March, individual and C corporation returns in April, and extended returns in September and October. Preparer time is planned against those dates for the volumes in your scope, and if your volumes change mid-season, we tell you at once what can be absorbed.
Extended returns stay in the same file structure, so work begun in the spring is finished in the autumn rather than rebuilt. Because Form 4868 and Form 7004 move the filing deadline but not the payment deadline, each extension comes to you with an estimate of the tax your client should pay on time.
For a preparer who works only for your firm all year, see dedicated tax preparers. For the wider support we give firms, see working with accounting firms.
Questions
Do our clients need to consent before you see their information?
Usually, yes. The regulations under section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code generally require a taxpayer's written consent before a US preparer discloses tax return information to a preparer outside the United States. Your firm obtains that consent in the form the rules require, and we start on a client's file once you confirm it is in place.
How is our clients' data protected?
Your clients' files are handled under a written confidentiality agreement with your firm. Where the work can be done inside your own systems, the data stays there; anything that has to be exchanged goes through our encrypted client portal, not email. Only the partner and team assigned to your firm can open it, and we never contact your clients unless you ask us to. See security and confidentiality.
Who will we deal with?
A named partner and a dedicated preparer team, not a rotating pool, so your conventions and your clients' histories are learned once and carried from season to season. Firms with steady volume can also add a dedicated tax reviewer to their own team.
What do you need from us to begin?
Access to your tax software and document system, your checklists and review standards, last year's returns and workpapers for the first batch of clients, and this year's trial balances or source documents.
Speak with a partner
Every enquiry is read by a partner and answered within one business day. Meetings are held at our offices, at yours, or by video.