Happy New Year! Important Tax Information for 2019

We are truly excited for the opportunity to work with you this year. I'm writing you today to outline some important items related to the 2019 season, so things will go as smooth as possible. We intend to deliver maximum value to you.Paperless Office. We strive to keep your costs down and are sensitive to our natural resources. We are a paperless office, and our default delivery system is through the secure online portal. Paper copies are always available upon request. We encourage you to request that all your source document originators deliver info to you electronically, so you can forward it to us efficiently.Secure Online Portal. This is the safest way to transmit sensitive documents. You can upload large files and multiple documents simultaneously here. When we have an action item for you, this is where it will be saved. Remember that your username is your email address. The system automatically resets the passwords periodically for your protection, but the Forgot my Password link is easy to use. Please contact us if you need help getting started using the Portal.Tax Organizers. We emailed online access instructions to you on January 7th. Let us know if you need assistance, or if you did not receive. Refer to the organizer for what you had last year. We encourage you to use it as a guide. You are not required to fill it out or use it, but it will help us prepare more accurate filings. We will ask you to complete the questionnaire portion of the organizer, before we begin tax prep.Dropping Off Info. We have 4 locations for you to drop off info this year. Visit www.cpaso.com/contact for exact locations and directions. We encourage you to call in advance to schedule a time.Glenwood Springs: Thursday from 9:00am to 1:00pm, Closed all other days.

Avon: Thursday 9:00am to 5:00pm, Closed all other days.

Lakewood: Monday through Thursday from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Closed on Friday.

Montrose:  Monday through Thursday from 12:00 noon to 5:00pm, Closed on Friday.If you need to explain any of your info, a member of the local office team will be available to accept delivery and take notes. We ask that you collect all your info before scheduling a drop off time.Tax Prep Process. Generally, we begin the preparation process when you have confirmed that all your source documents have been provided, completed the questionnaire, and signed the engagement letter. We'll send you an email during the process if there are any questions or clarifications needed. When your tax returns have been completed, you will receive an email from us with instructions on how to complete the filing. We will follow up with a reminder if we do not hear from you within a few days.Signing E-file Forms. This year the IRS has authorized a fully electronic signature process. Instead of printing, inking your signature, scanning, attaching, and emailing, we are now able to use Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) to complete the signature process. We offer this to you at no additional cost, upon request. Also, you are welcome to stop by one of our local offices to sign the forms, or sign and scan them back to us if you prefer.Virtual Meetings. This option will create more opportunity for us to connect with you. Regardless of the weather or different physical locations, we can facilitate a meeting where you can get face-to-face with your trusted advisor and look at the same document together. This is intended for review of your tax returns, after they have been completed. We'll be following up with additional info on this subject in the weeks ahead. Tax return review meetings (phone, video, or in person) are available upon request.Cutoff date for business returns (Form 1120S & 1065) is February 15th. This means that we cannot guarantee to complete your business returns by the first deadline of March 15th, unless all info for the business has been received by the February 15th cutoff date. Otherwise, we'll file an automatic extension of filing to move deadline to September 16th.Cutoff date for individual and fiduciary returns (Form 1040 & 1041) is March 15th. This means that we cannot guarantee to complete your returns by the first deadline of April 15th, unless all info for the business has been received by the March 15th cutoff date. Otherwise, we'll file for an automatic extension of filing to move deadline to October 15th. Note that extension is for time of filing only, and taxes owed are still due by April 15.Payment before filing. We respectfully request that payment is made after we complete and deliver drafts of your tax returns and, before we file with the tax agencies. This is the most logical and fair time to exchange value, in our experience. Note that monthly business clients for whom we provide full service accounting are not subject to this, when they've setup automatic monthly payments. Let us know if you'd like to discuss a monthly engagement for your business.New Tax Laws for 2018. While all our staff have taken extensive training on the new tax laws, the IRS has not yet adequately interpreted many related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for 2018, and the government shutdown around the holidays has put them even further behind. This means that we'll likely be receiving new info that will affect your tax filings, as we go through the season. We may ask you to go on extension this year, so we can fully consider the best tax positions to take with you.Professional Fees. We strive to keep our fees as low as possible and consistent with prior years. However, the new tax laws make everything more complicated and time consuming. Also, our software vendors have increased our costs. As a result, it's likely that your fee will go up by 5-10% this year (especially if you qualify for the new qualified business income deduction). Overall, we expect the tax savings that result from our efforts to outweigh the fee increase.Thank you for choosing CPA Solutions for your tax/accounting needs. We truly enjoy working with you.Sincerely,Jeremy R. Lederer