Tax Return Preparation in Exeter, NH

The short version

We prepare individual and business tax returns in Exeter, New Hampshire. Forms 1040, 1065, 1120 and 1120S, plus the state filings that go with them. You meet an Enrolled Agent face to face, we read your prior year at no charge, and the person who prepares the return is licensed to represent you if the Internal Revenue Service ever asks about it.

Every tax problem I deal with on the resolution side of this practice started as a return. A deduction nobody asked about. Income left off because a form arrived in March and went in a drawer. A business return that never matched the personal one.

None of those were disasters on the day they happened. They became letters two years later, when the cost of fixing them was many times what it would have cost to get them right. I spend a good part of my week undoing returns that were prepared quickly and cheaply, which is why I would rather prepare yours properly the first time.

We do it face to face

We go through the income and the expenses with you in the room. That is not ceremony. It is where the useful information comes from, because the things that change your return are usually the things a checklist never thinks to ask.

You mention that you moved a parent into the house. You mention the equipment you bought in November, or the side work nobody sent a form for, or the room you started using as an office. Those come up in conversation and they do not come up in a drop-off envelope.

Returns we prepare

Individuals, Form 1040. Wages, retirement income, Social Security, investments, rental property and self-employment.
Partnerships and multi-member LLCs, Form 1065, including the K-1s that have to agree with what each partner reports.
Corporations, Form 1120, and S corporations, Form 1120S, with the owner's personal return prepared alongside so the two actually match.
State returns, including for people working across the Massachusetts line.
Amended returns on Form 1040-X when a filed return turns out to be wrong.

I read last year's return first, at no charge

Partly because it tells me what carries forward, and partly because a second set of eyes on a return that has already been accepted is one of the few genuinely free ways to find money. If there is something worth amending I will tell you what it is worth before you decide whether to do anything. If last year was fine, I will tell you that too.

Bring last year's return even if you are only shopping around. The review costs you nothing either way.

Why the Enrolled Agent licence matters here

An Enrolled Agent is licensed by the Internal Revenue Service and has unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before it. Both of us hold that licence. In practice it means the person who prepared your return is also the person who can stand up for it if a question ever comes, which is not true everywhere.

You also get the same person next year, and the year after. Continuity is worth more on a tax return than people realise, because most of what makes yours complicated carries forward.

Do not overpay a franchise for a simple return, and be careful handing them a complicated one. In a lot of those offices the person preparing your return may have been doing it for a few weeks. That is the model rather than their fault, but it is not what you want on a rental property or a first year of self-employment.

If you are behind, start somewhere else

If you have years you never filed, do not start with this year. Go to unfiled and back tax returns first. Dealing with the old years is what unlocks everything else, and it is usually less painful than the version in your head.

Common questions

What returns do you prepare?

Individual returns on Form 1040, partnerships and multi-member LLCs on Form 1065, corporations on Form 1120 and S corporations on Form 1120S, plus the state filings that go with them. Rentals, side businesses, investments and employer equity all belong on the same return and get handled in one place.

Do I have to come into the office?

We would rather see you, because sitting across a desk is how the useful information comes out. If that does not work, we can do the meeting by phone and exchange documents through a secure link, so you get a return prepared by a licensed professional without leaving home.

You review my prior year for free. What is the catch?

There is not one. I read the last return you filed before preparing the new one, because it tells me what carries forward and because a second set of eyes sometimes finds something. If there is a mistake worth amending I will tell you what it is worth before you decide.

What do I need to bring?

Last year's return, every tax form that arrived in the mail or by email, and a rough list of what changed. New job, new house, new baby, sold something, started a business. The changes are what move the number.

How is this different from a franchise?

You work with an Enrolled Agent, and with the same one next year. An Enrolled Agent is licensed by the Internal Revenue Service and can represent you before the IRS at any level, so the person who prepared your return can also defend it.

What if I already filed and think it is wrong?

Bring it in. A return can be amended on Form 1040-X. There is a time limit on claiming any additional refund, so a return you suspect is wrong is worth looking at sooner rather than eventually.