2005 Tax Year Planning

The new tax law, with a few exceptions of which we will apprise you in the spring, is basically the same as current law in terms of income tax rates, depreciation methods and significant tax planning opportunities. We do not recommend any drastic tax planning changes at this point although there are a few provisions of the new law which we will be awaiting further interpretation and, if new regulations indicate significant new tax planning opportunities, we will include those ideas in future Tax Planning Advisors. That being said, please keep in mind that tax laws do change regularly and to please consult with us before making any major changes which may affect your tax situation.

 

Our Services

Even though the majority of our clients have been clients of ours for over ten years, we doubt that many of you know exactly what we do in the way of serving our clients. We thought we would take the opportunity to introduce you to our associates and the services and expertise we have in our office. In addition to our expertise in preparing your annual income tax returns for businesses and individuals, we offer many other tax and accounting related services. In our continuing effort to serve you better, the following is a reminder of the services we can provide to you, and some of our associates who specialize in those areas.

 

 Business Valuations

  • Business valuations are performed for a variety of reasons. Some of the more common reasons include:
    • Gift and estate Taxes
    • Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
    • Allocation of acquisition price
    • Buy/sell agreements between owners
    • Divorce valuations
    • Valuations to assist in the resolution of Partner breakups or buyouts.
    • Corporate Split-ups/spin-offs
    • Bankruptcy
    • Dissenting shareholder situations
    • Valuations to assist parents and their children in succession planning
    • Determination of the adequacy of life insurance


 

 

 

  • Scott Bush, CPA, CVA and Kevin Dryg, CPA, CVA are both Certified Valuation Analysts. This is a very prestigious designation which they earned after taking many valuation courses and passing a very detailed and comprehensive test on valuation techniques. They are currently members in good standing with the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. Scott graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and worked at the firm for eight years before becoming Mark’s partner for the last seven years. Kevin, who has been with us for over four years, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

Audits, Reviews and Compilations

  • The basis of being a Certified Public Accountant is the legal right given by the state to render an opinion on the presentation of a company’s financial reports. Our firm takes great pride in the quality of our audits, reviews and compilation reports. These attestation and accounting services are performed for various reasons and at varying intervals such as annually or quarterly.

  • Since its inception, our firm has engaged a member of the AICPA to provide us with an independent outside review of our audit, review, and compilation engagements. This review is called a Peer Review and it occurs every three years. This review is conducted for the purpose of determining the quality and procedures we use to provide our clients with their financial reports. We have had four Peer Reviews and have received an unqualified report on each Peer Review, with the last three reports receiving no letter of comments.

  • Mika Schneider, CPA, a native of Texas and graduate of Angelo State, has been primarily responsible for our audit services for the seven years she has been a member of our firm. Ryan Sanger, a graduate of CSU and a former intern of ours during his college days has been

a senior in charge of many of the reports we have generated in the three years he has been a professional associate. We are also pleased to have Cody Pisacka, a graduate of the Chadron State College and CPA, who previously worked over five years for a well-respected CPA firm in Laramie, Wyoming join our firm this fall. We expect great things from Cody who brings a wealth of experience in the small business tax planning and financial reporting areas.


Income Tax Planning and Projections

  • The complex Internal Revenue Code results in many pitfalls resulting in higher tax bills, but just as many opportunities to reduce taxes with proper planning.

  • This may sound obvious, but sometimes people forget that for optimum results, tax planning needs to be done before a transaction or event occurs. This maximizes the effectiveness of the planning points and can reduce the tax burden to the lowest possible level.

  • Prime examples of tax planning opportunities are starting a new business, purchasing or selling a business, and tax-deferred, like-kind exchanges

  • Many of our clients request that we prepare business and personal income tax projections at various times throughout the year, but especially as the end of the year approaches. In addition to simply estimating tax liabilities, these are important in year-end bonus calculations and for identifying the need to change estimated payments or withholding amounts. They also serve as a forum to provide our clients valuable tax and estate planning ideas.


 

 

  • While most of our associates participate in this area, Nancy Franco, Sharon Stroot, and Laurie Anderson make this a priority in their practices. After working as an accountant for several companies including General Motors, Nancy Franco joined the firm about 6 years ago and has been a consistent "go-to" person in preparing our more complicated tax returns. Sharon Stroot and Laurie Anderson have both just recently joined our team. Sharon, who previously worked for Medical Manager Health Systems as an accountant and a contract administrator, brings a wealth of knowledge in electronic systems. Laurie Anderson, CPA, earned her accounting degree from the University of Northern Colorado in 2003. A life-long resident of Colorado, she brings a great work ethic to us after previously working for two small accounting firms in the area.

Cost Segregation Studies

  • Cost segregation studies are an exploding area of tax planning and a virtual necessity for anyone who acquired a building in the past seven years at a cost over $500,000.

  • These studies allow the owner of a purchased or constructed building to segregate the costs of the building into real property and personal property components. This is a critical distinction as the components of personal property are allowed an accelerated depreciable life of 5 or 7 years instead of the depreciable life of 39 years allowed for nonresidential real property.

  • Sharon Ross is our cost segregation specialist and has been with us for over eight years. After working six years in California for a small accounting firm, Sharon, a CPA and a CSU graduate, returned to her native Colorado.

Internal Control Evaluations

  • Internal control evaluations look at a company’s internal control structure and procedures. The designs of the control systems are scrutinized to see where there are weaknesses or gaps in the internal control structure. Tests can also be done to assess the effectiveness of the internal controls.

  • Mika Schneider, Ryan Sanger, and Cody Pisacka are the firm’s internal control experts.

QuckBooks Consulting

  • QuickBooks is the accounting software we recommend for our business clients due to its versatility, ease of use, and relatively inexpensive cost.

  • If you are starting a new business or converting from your existing accounting software to QuickBooks, we can assist you in setting up your QuickBooks properly.

  • We can also assist you with any ongoing questions you may have about using the QuickBooks software

  • Mika Schneider is certified as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. This certification was earned by completing several courses in QuickBooks and by passing a rigorous examination.

  • Peggy Clark is also one of our top QuickBooks consultants. Being in charge of the firm’s accounting has provided her with extensive experience with QuickBooks. Peggy has been with the firm for fifteen years


 

 


 Tax Research and Questions

  • Our firm relishes its role as one of Colorado’s leading tax research and planning firms. We advise some of the states best and brightest CPA firms, law firms and companies on the intricacies of the tax code. Tax questions arise in a multitude of personal and business situations. We have one of the most extensive tax and law libraries in the state which is totally automated and interfaced with the internet. We spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on just updates and software enhancements to our tax planning systems and libraries.

  • Della Bauserman, CPA who joined the firm in 2003, is one of our primary tax question researchers. She has a Masters in Taxation from the University of Denver and has worked at several international accounting firms in Denver including PricewaterhouseCoopers. Teresa Kaufman, CPA, holds a Masters in Accounting from CSU and has been with us for 3 years. Teresa is also one of our best associates in the area of tax research.


Estate Planning

  • Currently, the estate tax is scheduled to affect fewer people in the next five years due to a steady increase in the exemption amount of estates. However, planning issues still exist if your estate could be valued at over $3 million.
  • Family limited liability partnerships or limited liability companies are excellent estate tax planning vehicles. These entities allow for discounts on the value of the estate and the ability to transfer ownership of assets to beneficiaries prior to death.

Estate Tax Returns

  • When the value of an estate is significant and an estate tax return is required, we are well qualified to prepare it. Having prepared your personal and business tax returns over the years, and consulted with you on various tax situations, we are already familiar with the tax issues pertinent to your estate.

  • Our business valuation expertise provides an additional benefit for estates containing a business or family partnership, allowing you to minimize the number of professionals engaged in finalizing the estate.


Continuing Education Seminars

  • Our firm is a leader in producing several tax planning seminars attended by other CPAs for continuing education credits as required for their CPA certification.
  • We produce three courses, Year-end Tax Planning, Tax Planning using Limited Liability Entities and Advanced Tax Planning using Limited Liability Entities.

  • We have also produced three nationally broadcasted webcast seminars jointly with the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants.

  • Mark Soukup, CPA, who earned his Masters in Taxation at CSU, and founded the firm over twenty years ago, teaches all the seminars. Teresa Kaufman is in charge of the research and writing for the materials used in the seminars. Carol Owsley, who has been part of our team for nearly twenty years, is in charge of the presentation materials.

 

 


Paperless Systems Consultation Services

  • Many businesses are converting to paperless systems to increase their productivity and decrease the need for physical record storage. We have recently become one of the first accounting firms in the state to convert to a paperless system.

  • Having experienced the process of converting to a paperless system, and using it for our daily operations, we have developed an expertise in this area.

  • When the time comes for you to convert your business to a paperless system, we will be able

to provide a valuable consulting service for you to ease the transition.

  • Ryan Sanger, Mika Schneider, and Brenda Hofmann are our top paperless systems consultants. Brenda, the cheerful associate almost everyone comes in contact with in visiting our office, is our primary information technology associate in addition to supervising all the front office activities and report processing.

 Why We Do Not Do Specific Financial Planning

Some CPA firms provide specific investment advice and sell investments to their clients. It has been our policy that we do not provide these services for two reasons. The first and primary reason is that we believe that it would be a conflict of interest to provide you with tax advice and also sell investments. Although numerous brokerage companies with the lure of significant profits have approached us, we have resisted entering selling financial products. We want to ensure that our advisory services are not in any way influenced by the possibility of making a commission off an investment product. We want to give you the best independent advice possible with no hint of personal gain.

The second reason we do not sell financial investments is that we do not believe that this service is in line with our core competencies. We are committed to providing the best tax and accounting services available as identified above and pride ourselves in keeping up to date with changes in tax and accounting services law. We believe that financial product sale should be done by professionals who make their living tracking the markets on a daily basis and are informed about changing market conditions and the best performing investments.

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