(This must be signed prior to preparation of the entity tax return, by an authorized representative for the entity)

We are pleased to have this opportunity to assist you with your income tax return preparation.  This agreement confirms the understanding between you and Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc., hereafter known as HHTS, concerning tax services we will provide.  We will prepare the US federal and state income tax returns from the information you provide to us. We will not audit or verify the information you submit, although we may ask you to clarify it. We are responsible only for the preparation of the income tax returns. We return all original documents and give you a complete copy of the tax return.  For the purposes of this agreement, the word “Entity” means all Corporations, Home Owner’s Associations, Partnerships, Multiple Member LLCs, Non-profits, Trust (form 1041), and Decedent Estates (form 1041).  We do not file overseas tax returns, returns for businesses with foreign income, or state only returns.  We must file the federal return in order to file a state return.  We only file the following US federal income tax forms for entities:  1120, 1120-H, 1120S, 1065, 1041, 990, 990-T, and 990-EZ.  Though not a business, we file 706 estate returns for married clients who are electing portability.  All entities must be formed inside of the United States and based inside of the United States entities.

We require records to be provided for extremely high audited areas of the tax return or if we cannot get the numbers on the tax return to agree with your records. We also require all of the following in order to prepare your return:  A Profit and Loss (P&L), a Balance Sheet, a Statement of Cash Flows (if available), a form with a breakdown of all equipment, assets, furniture, and vehicles purchased during the year, W-2 forms and 1099 Forms – if applicable, if you have W-2 and 1099 forms, we need the W-3 and 1096, and if you have rental, an income and expense sheet for each rental.  We may require bank statements, if we cannot get your numbers to agree on the tax return. We also require, for vehicles, a mileage record of total miles driven in the tax year and total business miles for the tax year for each vehicle along with the make, model, and year of each vehicle. 

It is our understanding that all of the information submitted to us for the purpose of tax return preparation is true, correct, and complete to the best of your knowledge and belief and that you have the necessary written support for that information.

By providing your signature below, you are confirming to us that unless we are otherwise advised: your expenses and if applicable mileage records are supported by the necessary records required under the Internal Revenue Code; your business use of mixed-use property, such as computers and vehicles, is substantiated by a log of such use as to preclude the deduction of any personal expenses, which may be related to such property. If you have any questions as to the type of records required, please ask us for advice in that regard.

Information Needed by - You should note, that in order to complete appropriate tax preparation and timely filed tax returns, we require that all information for S-Corporations & Partnerships that are using a calendar filing year must be provided to us no later than March 1st of each year.  For Estates, Trusts, Home Owner’s Associations, and C-Corporations that use a calendar year, we must be provided your tax information no later than March 30th of each year.  If you submit paperwork after March 1st or March 30th, we do try and complete all returns by the due date, but if the information is submitted after those dates for your respective entity, then there is no guarantee that it will be done without an extension being needed.  If your entity uses a fiscal year, we require your information to be provided by the 30th of the 3rd month after your ending fiscal year, or an extension will have to be filed.  In saying that, we may, depending on other circumstances, have to file an extension even if you did provide your tax information before the timeline described above.  We always do all we can to finish your return without filing an extension.  Various states might require different filing deadlines and extension due dates.  We require at least 15 days in order to ensure we can file those state income tax extensions.  Virginia uses the same dates as listed above.  If you are filing using a fiscal year, we require 15 days prior to due date to be notified for us to be able to file the extension. 

Up to Date Contact Information – It is the responsibility of the client to keep up-to-date information in terms of phone numbers, addresses, and e-mail addresses on file with us.  We do not only need to contact you to get information to complete your return, but we also need to inform you once your return is completed.  There are also times we must talk to you after we file your return originally.  Examples are if your return rejects when we attempt to file it or we get some type of notice from a legal tax authority and we need to contact you.  There might be a law change that we realize affects you or an issue on your return that comes up some time after we file your return.  Due to these reasons, please keep us informed of any contact changes.  We do not attempt to contact clients by mail for these issues. 

Date Dates – The due date of your tax return is dependent on your tax entity type and if you are a calendar year filer or a fiscal year filer.  Calendar year filers of S-Corporations and Partnerships are due March 15th, calendar year filers of C-Corporations, Trusts (Form 1041), Decedent Estates (Form 1041), and filers of Unrelated Business Income Tax (Form 990-T) are due April 15th.  Calendar year filers of non-profits (Form 990 series, excluding 990-T) are due May 15th.

Extensions - If we do not have all the information needed to complete your return by “Information needed by date” above, you are a new client filing with us on or after “Information needed by date”, or we are not able to file your return by the due date of your return, it may be necessary to file an application for an extension. This may require a tax payment made by you by the due date of your tax returns.  S-Corporation and Partnerships do not normally owe anything, since they are pass-through entities, so typically there is no payment that is required to be paid.  However, S-Corporations that converted from a C-Corporation that had built in gains, may be required to make a payment on their taxes and there are certain things that do not pass through to the shareholders/partners that requirement payment.  We would not necessarily be aware of that until we finish your income taxes.  Corporations, Trust, and Estates, who file as a calendar year filer and owe on the return, the payment is due, even if an extension if filed, by April 15th, or if extended, the due date of the return, in an amount approximating your unpaid tax liability. We may have inputted some information on your taxes, but the result we see on our screen is not necessary what you will owe or if you will owe anything once we complete your return.  We are not responsible for any underpayment that you make, even if you rely on a tentative number we give you from your return.  Upon completion and receipt of the tax returns, you will be responsible for the timely filing of said returns.  An extension is an extension of time to file a tax return, but not an extension of time to pay any amounts due on that tax return.  For clients filing within the extension due date period, we need the tax information at least 15 days prior to the extension due date in order to timely file your income tax return.

Once we file an extension for you, we cannot amend it. We can file zero balance due extensions. For zero balance due extensions, no signature is required on behalf of the clients, however we do need to talk to you and get your permission prior to filing an extension for you. If a client wants to mail a payment with their extension, they will need to talk to us.  Many clients must make payments via EFTPS.  We will need to talk to you about how to pay your extension payment based on your entity.  We do not mail extension vouchers to clients. For S-Corporations and Partnerships, we reserve the right, once you drop off your taxes, to automatically file a zero-balance due extension, in the event we cannot talk to you on the phone, though there is not a guarantee we will.  The only way to guarantee an extension is filed is to contact us and request and extension or tell us on the phone when we call.  We notify each client, either when you come in the office, by call back if we cannot finish your return, or once we receive your tax documents of the extension requirement if you file with us. If we call and you do not answer, we will leave a message. If you have been communicating with us in the portal, we will put the question in the messenger in the portal and if by email, we will email you the question. If you are not using our portal to communicate with us or using e-mail to communicate with us, we will attempt to call, in order to either leave a message or talk to you, up to 3 times on multiple days. Once we talk to you, leave a message, e-mail you, or put a message in the portal, it is your responsibility to either return our call, inform us if you want us to file an extension or not, and (if required) give us the required extension information. If we have left a message (either by phone, e-mail, or portal) or talked to you and you have not answered the extension questions or contacted us back, you are responsible for any and all penalties that are applied from not filing an extension.  If we make an additional call to ask about extensions, those are simply a courtesy and not a guarantee that those can or will happen, even if they have happened in prior years.  We normally use the same method to contact you as we have been talking to you about your taxes. Example: you have contacted us and use the portal, then our contact is normally the portal.  We normally do not use multiple methods to contact you, however at any time, we can at our discretion, change to calling you and using that as our method to attempt to reach you.

Extensions take time to complete and we close at 5:00 pm on April 15th and we do not stay open past our normal working hours on March 15th.  We do not have enough time to complete extensions for people after 5:00 on those due dates.   In order to make sure we can do everything we are required to do on filing returns and extensions on the due dates, our phones turn off at 5:00 pm on April 15th and at close on March 15th, we close and lock the doors, and we do not open the door after that time.  After 5:00 or close time for March 15th, our complete concentration is required in order to get everything correctly filed and everything that has to be done that day.  As a result, you must contact us by 1:00 pm on the due date in order for us to timely file an extension for you. In rare cases, if we have time, which we normally do not have since we do not finish all the returns being filed till normally right at midnight on the due dates, we may at our discretion, file a zero-balance due extension for clients that we have not talked to.  There is no guarantee that it can or will happen, but we may file those.  If you filed an extension on your own, it is your responsibility to inform us of that prior to the due date to avoid us from attempting to protect you and filing an extension for you as a zero-balance due extension.    

Penalties for not filing an extension – There are extreme penalties for not filing an extension. Those penalties go up every month.  You never want to miss filing an extension, so please contact us when we call so we can make sure you have an extension.  The responsibility to file an extension is on the customer to talk to us and ensure an extension is filed for them. 

Extensions for multiple types of returns and/or people – It is the client’s responsibility to inform us of each return that you want an extension for and for each person you want an extension for.  It is important to note, that when employees talk to you, there is normally a lot going on in the office and we do not necessarily, at that moment, correlate the other taxes to you, but are concentrating on the return you are asking about.  There might be 10 people in the office and every line is either ringing or on hold, so it is the responsibility of the client to tell us about each type of return that you want an extension on.  Example 1: You call and request an extension of time to file your corporation, but fail to tell us you want to file an extension on your personal income tax return.  In this example, your personal income tax will not get an extension filed for you.  Example 2: You call to tell us that you want an extension for your Trust, but fail to request an extension for the Estate tax return.  Your Estate return will not get an extension filed for it.

Tax Stance - We will use our judgment to resolve questions in your favor where the tax law is unclear or where there are conflicts between the taxing authorities' interpretation of the law and what seems to be other supportable filing positions. Your return is subject to review by taxing authorities. Any items resolved against you by the examining agent are subject to certain rights of appeal. In the event of an examination, we will be available to represent you at our normal billing rates.

3rd Party - The IRS allows tax preparers as third-party designees, to communicate with them on behalf of their clients by indicating so on the face of the tax return. Unless instructed by you otherwise, we will answer affirmative to the question that allows us to communicate on your behalf with the IRS.

Intake & Worksheets - As part of our tax return process, we require each of our clients to do the Intake Form for the tax year we are preparing.  We also request that certain clients fill out different worksheets depending on their specific tax circumstances.  We use those forms to be more efficient and to help identify possible deductions that may potentially be overlooked. By signing below, you acknowledge that if you do not complete the intake accurately and/or requested worksheets, you understand that you could miss deductions, miss income not reported on information forms you gave us, or we could answer a question on your tax return incorrectly based on the incorrect information you provided. Also, we may require more time to prepare your tax return if we have missing information on the intake or worksheets. Submitting these worksheets will also help us minimize the cost of our services we provide to you.

Text Notifications - When you provide us with your phone numbers, there may be times we send text notifications to you, including but not limited to: appointment reminders and important due dates. We will not send marketing communications via text messaging. By signing below, you agree to allow us to send text notifications to you.

Law Changes: Congress can change the law at any time and make it retroactive to the beginning of any current or prior year. After a law passes, IRS then has to apply the law and that application of the law can look very different than people think, what we hear on the news, or what politicians say.  A change in the law may mean you have to amend your current or prior returns or redo a return that has been finished, but not filed yet. We charge to amend returns since it is a completely new return, but if we prepared the original return, we charge at a discounted rate.  We also charge to redo a return.  Congress is constantly talking about law changes, but until it is law, we do not use or calculate it into the taxes, nor do we delay finishing a return.  Something is not a law until it passes both houses of congress and the President signs it.  The final versions of bills are normally very different than what the news media or politicians say, because of that, accountants would never finish taxes if we waited on laws to pass. We finish taxes as the law is on that day. If the law changes the next day, the return will have to be redone if not picked up or amended once filed.

Court rules can also affect how laws are implemented, interpreted, or rule that a law in un-constitutional.  Courts can also strike down certain parts of laws.  We do not get notified when court cases conclude or the results of that ruling.  If reported in the news, we might not read a particular news article(s) that may or may not report the rulings of various cases.  We do get updates on some cases each year, but again, we do not get notified or even know about every case.  Since we are not attorneys, we do not base our actions on court cases, unless they are known by us in advance and we are able to implement them.  Lastly, if we have charged for a return, service, or anything that was required by law and then ruled un-constitutional, there is no refund since our fees are based upon information at that time. If something is ruled un-constitutional it will normally be challenged by going to appeal or the supreme court.  We only base our actions on what the taxing authorities instruct us to do, unless we have something with substantial authority that we could use to alter what those instructions tell us to do. 

Fees: Fees for our services will be based on forms that are on the return, how many forms we have to input into the software, and on the amount of time required to prepare the returns, at our normal billing rates, plus any out-of-pocket expenses. Our form fees are subject to change from year to year. If we have given you an estimate, the estimate is an average based on what you have told us you would have. The final amount might be higher or lower than quoted. Payment for taxes and/or services is due when work is completed by HHTS, regardless of an extension being filed. Payment is also due when work has been done, but has not been completed, through no fault of HHTS, and/or we have not had contact with you for 60 days. Entity returns do not normally get refunds, but if they do, we cannot take our fees from an entities refund.  If you want us to try and take our fees from your personal tax refund and we allow that service, there is no guarantee that we will be able to take any/all of the fees from the refund. If we are unable to take all or part of our fees from the refund, then you are responsible for paying the balance.

Once we start a return, if you choose to not have us complete the return, we still charge for what we have done and our time. Our minimum charge in this situation is $250.

If your taxes are being handled via mail, email, or our portal, then we will send your e-file forms to you with our fee for our services. Once we receive your e-file forms and payment, we will send your completed copy of the tax return and any original documents back to you. If you emailed us your documents, we do not return those, since they are copies. We cannot e-file your taxes with a payment due to HHTS. If you handling everything via mail, we will send you our invoice once the tax is completed with your e-file forms. Once payment is received, we will send your taxes and your copy to you. Since we cannot mark a mailed return complete without payment, we keep your documents and return until your payment comes in helps us to ensure your return is not missed being marked completed, which is an important step.

By signing below, you agree that you are personally responsible for any and all payments due to Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc. for services provided for you.

Prepayments:  For customers going out of business or terminating trust and estate accounts, they must prepay for their income taxes or risk having to pay the fee for the income taxes out of their personal funds.  We offer this service for clients under the following conditions. 

The fee covers the following year’s income tax under the assumption that it will be filed the following year while IRS E-File window is open.  If you do not file the following year, but instead have us prepare the income tax in any additional year, we will apply the payment to the return, but you may owe more due to possible changes in fees.  There is also additional fees if you chose to file, in any year, during the time IRS E-File Window is closed, which is approximately between November and January, though it can be anytime IRS determines. 
The fee covers returns based on what you have told us that you will have on your return, but if you fail to tell us forms or things that change your price more than $50.00, then you owe the difference. 

Fee Deposits:  For people who are filing more than one year at a time, we get a deposit toward those fees.  Those fees are estimates only and the final fee can be higher or lower than the estimate.  We apply those fees to the returns completed first and then move the remaining balance to the next return year.  For most people there is a balance due at the end of the return since we normally only get a percentage of the total estimate, but in some cases, we required a full deposit.  The percentage of the deposit required is completely at the discretion of the preparer, but there is a minimum requirement that the preparer cannot go under.  No work is started until the deposit requirements are met.    

Entity Return Minimum Fees (Federal & State)

The minimum fee for an original C-Corp tax return is $525.

The minimum fee for an amended C-Corp tax return (we prepared the original) is $125.00.

The minimum fee for an amended C-Corp tax return (we did not prepare the original) is $550.00.

The minimum fee for an original S-Corp tax return is $475.

The minimum fee for an amended S-Corp tax return (we prepared the original) is $125.00.

The minimum fee for an amended S-Corp tax return (we did not prepare the original) is $500.00.

The minimum fee for an original Partnership tax return is $500.00.

The minimum fee for an amended Partnership tax return (we prepared the original) is $125.00.

The minimum fee for an amended Partnership tax return (we did not prepare the original) is $525.00.

The minimum fee for an original Trust & Decedent Estate tax return (Form 1041) is $400.

The minimum fee for an amended Trust & Decedent Estate tax return (Form 1041) (we prepared the original) is $125.00.

The minimum fee for an amended Trust & Decedent Estate tax return (Form 1041) (we did not prepare the original) is $425.00.

Fees for Non-Profit Returns, you must ask us about.

The minimum fee for Homeowner’s Associations is $125.00

The minimum fee for a consultation appointment is $65.00.

The minimum fee for a letter written is $65.00.

The charge for hourly services connected to taxes, for example, tax bookkeeping $65/hour.

The tax bookkeeping for a tax return is not the same thing as the monthly bookkeeping fee we charge or offer. This is a bookkeeping charge for us to add up receipts or items so we can prepare your return.

Hourly services connected to taxes are tax bookkeeping, calculating the basis of property, research for tax positions or elections, audits, going through client receipts, calculating basis for partners or shareholders in their respective companies, going through documents to find what applies to a tax return, consultation appointments, and time spent on the phone getting information or assisting clients. We allow each client a total of 20 minutes of all combined calls on the phone for their tax returns without charging them.

Late Fees: After 30 days, payment is past due and is subject to a $20.00 late fee. The entire balance includes all related late & collection fees as well as any other fees incurred. HHTS charges a 9% interest rate on past due invoices compounded monthly. Checks returned for non-sufficient funds are subject to a $25.00 fee. If court action is required, court fees, attorney fees, and a $50.00 collection fee will be added to the total amount owed to HHTS.

E-File: We are required by law to e-file all tax returns, unless the return cannot be e-filed due sanction, IRS/state not allowing a certain form to be e-filed, or IRS/State requiring it to be mailed.  By default, we e-file all returns. By signing below, you give us your permission to electronically file an applicable tax return(s) and authorize us to enter a Personal Identification Number (PIN) on your behalf. If you choose to electronically sign your tax returns, electronic filing documents, and any other correspondence with Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc. your initials and signature below constitutes your permission to accept signing electronically. This does not mean you are signing the returns by signing this agreement, but authorizing us to use your electronic signature if and when you do sign your return(s) electronically. All electronically filed returns go through an IRS-approved 3rd party and your signature below is your acknowledgment that you understand that and give us permission to file them through the 3rd party.

Rejected E-File – When we electronically file your taxes, we get back a code that says either accepted or rejected.  If accepted all is good and your return is now in the hands of the IRS or states that we e-filed to.  If rejected, your return is not filed.  In some situations, we can fix issues on our own without contacting our clients and if that is the case, we will do so and re-file your taxes.  If we cannot fix it on our own, we will attempt to contact you by phone up to 3 times to either get you or leave a message.  Once we have either talked to you or left a message, it is the responsibility of the client to take care of the situation.  In some cases, we will have to redo your taxes and if so, you will have to pay a fee for us to redo your taxes and pay for any additional forms that would be required in addition to signing new e-file forms.  Before the corrected return can be e-filed you, must sign the new e-file forms and you will have to pay the additional fee/s.  In some cases, you cannot e-file the return and it must be mailed.  If that is the case, your return will still need to be redone and an additional form must be added to your tax return.  You will need to come in and pick up the new copy of your return, which has different codes on the state return, an additional form on the federal return, and we have to change any direct deposit or direct debit information on the return.  The additional fee will have to be paid at that time.  Any new information that you must provide us to make any changes will have to be provided by you before any changes can be done.  Once we have everything we need to correct your tax return, then you will go into the queue to be re-done.  We normally require a 3-day turn around to re-do rejected e-file returns once we get all the information we need to correct the return.

Un-opened Mail - Legally, we are not allowed to open your mail for you. If you receive tax documents in the mail, please open your envelopes for us prior to dropping off your documents.

Signatures - We cannot sign taxes for clients and no tax can be e-filed without a legal valid signature(s) of the appropriate responsible party prior to e-filing the tax return. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS!

Other Tax Jurisdictions - It is the responsibility of the client to inform HHTS of any tax filing requirements in other taxing jurisdictions. We file a federal and a state return for your home state. If we notice, when preparing your return, that you are required to file another state return, then we will inform you that it has to be filed, but is not our responsibility to find that information.  Some states also require local income tax returns to be filed. 

Foreign Accounts - It is the responsibility of the client to inform HHTS if they have any foreign bank accounts or foreign assets. This is very important and has to be disclosed on a tax return and other taxes might be due as a result.

Copies of Returns:  We give each client one copy of a tax return, which is included in your fee.  For additional copies, we charge a fee.  We are required to keep returns for 3 years from the date of filing.  We do not guarantee we will have copies of any returns older than 5 years as of the date of filing. 

Fees for income taxes for tax years 2017 – current year are $5.00 per copy, cash only and must be paid in advance.  If for some reason we do not have a copy of returns the fee is refundable.  Fees for 2006-2016 are considered a research fee of $10.00 per year, cash only, non-refundable, and must be paid in advance.  We do not guarantee we can get a copy of returns from 2006-2016, which is why it is a non-refundable research fee.  In most cases, we can, but as operating systems continue to change, it affects are ability to print those older years. 

We do not have any supporting documentation prior to the 2010 tax year.  If you want copies of supporting documentation, we charge an additional research fee of $5.00 per year, but we do not guarantee that we will have all of it or any of it.

Supporting documentation note:  Sometimes people have very poor copies that do not scan good or scan at all.  The copy might also be in a color that does not scan.  Also, your documentation might be larger than 8”x10”, which will not scan.   

FBAR Note: HHTS does not prepare the FinCEN 114 Report of Foreign Bank & Financial Accounts (FBAR). The return is not a tax return and must be filed by April 15th of each year to FinCEN. It is to report information for any individual with ownership, joint ownership, or signature authority over one of several accounts, investments, foreign pensions or mutual funds, or foreign life insurance policies when the aggregate total value of all the accounts is over $10,000 on any day of the year. Since this is not a tax return, we do not file it. It is the responsibility of each customer to report and file this. Failure to do so is extreme including extreme penalties. We do ask questions for forms that we put on your tax return in reference to assets more than $10,000, but we do not screen or discuss the FBAR. You do not want to miss filing this form if you are required to do so.

Beneficial Ownership Returns (BOI): Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)/Beneficial Ownership Reporting. New starting in 2024, was a new reporting requirement that was not a tax return, but did affect entities that report to the state secretaries.  Corporations and Limited Liability Companies report to state secretaires. This also includes Home Owners Associations.  There were some exceptions to this reporting rule, but these can change over time.  There was an initial reporting requirement and a report that had to be done if various changes occur.  We assisted a limited number of clients by doing the initial reporting for them in 2024, but we are discontinuing offering this service in 2025.  It was never our intent to continue to file the BOI filings and we only offered that to help that initial filing in 2024 only.  You have sole responsibility for your compliance with the CTA, including its BOI reporting requirements and the collection of relevant ownership information. We shall have no liability resulting from your failure to comply with CTA. Information regarding the BOI reporting requirements can be found at https://www.fincen.gov/boi. Consider consulting with legal counsel if you have questions regarding the applicability of the CTA’s reporting requirements and issues surrounding the collection of relevant ownership information.

Update to BOI, currently the courts have stopped the filing requirement.  Until it gets worked out nothing needs to be filed, but you need to check the news in reference to this filing requirement.

Partnership Partner & S-Corporation Shareholder Basis Worksheet:  We provide, for informational purposes only, a basis worksheet for our clients, which uses information provided to us from either other tax preparers who have prepared your returns in the past or our clients themselves as well as information from your income tax returns.  If information is provided from another preparer or from our clients, we have no idea if that worksheet or basis is correct in any form or fashion, but simply using what was provided to us.  In terms of what we prepare, it is prepared based on information provided to us from clients.  Since clients bookkeeping is not always prepared in a fashion that correctly reports equity, it is our best guess that we can come up with in terms of basis.  We in no way guarantee that is the correct basis, but report it in the best way we have on available information.  IRS and Congress has been working hard since 2018 to make reporting of basis required and trackable.  It is the ultimate responsibility of the client to track their basis, but we give you these worksheets to only to assist you.  Starting 2024, there will be tax forms that track basis in certain situations and for those forms we will use the best figures we can come up with to prepare those form.  Without an accountant to prepare your bookkeeping and to have had an accountant to prepare that bookkeeping since the company’s inception, it is very hard to 100% know what your basis is.  We ask questions of our clients in order to know about equity transactions, but clients do not always remember equity transactions or have any means to track it.  By signing this agreement, you are acknowledging that our worksheets are guides only, not meant to be considered 100% basis, but since the majority of our clients do not, nor have the ability, to track basis, we will use our worksheet to prepare IRS basis forms.  If a client has basis that they track on their own, it is the responsibility of the client to give us those figures and show us how they came up with those figures.  We will use what you have if you can show us that you have accurately prepared your basis figures.  We require proof that the basis is correct due to clients attempting to commit tax fraud by changing basis incorrectly in order to give them a tax benefit that they do not qualify for.    

Preparer: We cannot guarantee which preparer will do your taxes and preparers can change from year to year. We do attempt to have the preparer you ask for do your taxes, but we are responsible to get your taxes done as soon as possible and your tax might have something that someone else in the office has a specialty in and the return will be passed to that preparer to make sure you get the most tax savings.

Mailed Returns: If your return is not allowed to be e-filed, for any reason, you will be solely responsible to mail the returns to the appropriate taxing authorities. Review all tax-return information carefully before signing and dating the return(s). We do not mail any tax information to the IRS, a State, or a U.S. Territory. Customers are solely responsible to sign, date, and mail those returns.  We highly suggest that you send all returns certified with return receipt and keep that returned receipt with your tax records for a minimum of 3 years. 

Disaster Zones & Declarations: It is the responsibility of the client to inform us if they are in a declared disaster zone.  We must be informed, prior to completing your income tax return.

Credits or Deductions on Assets taken in prior years: It is the responsibility of the client to inform us if they sell an asset or, for some reason, they no longer have the asset that they took any prior year credit or deduction on.

 
Consent to Release Information:  If you want any taxes or supporting documentation emailed to you, we will need a Consent to Release Information form from the responsible party of your organization.  Also, if you want your taxes released to anyone else or any company than we need a specific release for that person or that company.

 
Email & Correspondence: We only keep email for 3 years.  For messages in our portal, we only keep information from our clients for 1 year in the portal.  Also, we only leave copies of returns that we put in the portal for our clients for 5 years.  All other items we put in the portal for our clients are deleted on a yearly basis.

 
Email is not 100% secure and we do not suggest emailing tax documents to tax returns to us, but instead upload them into our portal that we have for our clients.  Any communications done via email are done with the understanding that HHTS is not responsible for the security of that information and that you use it or request that we send you information on it at your own risk.  2025 is the last year we are allowing current clients to use email to get returns e-mailed to them.  After 2025, we only will only allow e-mail of returns and documents for prior year clients who do not have a portal.

Payment Due on Return: If there is a payment due on your return and you have not chosen to have that amount debited from your account, you are solely responsible to mail that payment to the proper agency or filing it online.  Some states require amounts to be paid by debit or paid online.  The IRS does not allow corporations to mail payments to them, but that payment must be paid on EFTPS.  Also, sometimes if you pass certain thresholds of amounts due then you will be required to pay amounts due either by debit or paid online from that point onward.  In those instances, the state will not accept a mailed-in payment.  If we advise you that this requirement applies to you and you choose to not have us debit your payment, then you are solely responsible for paying it online.  

Tax Savings: HHTS and its employees also offer other services including financial and insurance services. In the course of preparing your taxes, we will notice things that can save you money on your tax return. Some of those things include financial and insurance-related items. Unless you request otherwise, we will acknowledge that your signing of this document means you want us to discuss these items with you. We will in no way try to sell you our products, but simply let you know that you can save money if you do them or have them. From there, if you want them, you can get them anywhere that sells them. If you choose, on your own, to ask us about our products, then we will discuss our products with you.

Personal Property Tax Returns:  Some of our clients have us prepare their business personal property returns for them.  If you have filed in prior years either yourself or via another firm, we require a copy of that return.  We also require at least 15 days prior to the due date to file these returns on time for you.  Personal Property Returns do not have extensions.  You also must inform us when dropping off your income tax return that you have a personal property tax return enclosed.  We do charge a separate fee for the personal property tax return.  We only file personal property returns for localities in Virginia only.  If you have one from another state, you can request that we prepare it and we will review it to see if we can, but we need at least 15 days to make a determination on if we can prepare it or not.

Gervase Financial Service, Inc. and Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc. both operate from the same location, have the same employees, and have the same owners. Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc. is our legal name, but our trade name is Hampden Hills Tax & Financial.

You must be 18 years old to sign this agreement.

Please note that this letter defines our respective duties and responsibilities relating to your engagement with our firm. If you do not understand any of the terms of this agreement, please call so we can review them with you.

PLEASE REVIEW AND SIGN:

If this letter is in accordance with your understanding of the terms of this agreement, please sign and return it to our office. We require a signed letter to be in our file prior to beginning tax preparation.

I affirm that the information I provide to HHTS is true, complete, and correct to the best of my (our) knowledge.

Notwithstanding anything contained herein, both the accountant and the client(s) agree that regardless of where the client is domiciled and regardless of where this agreement is physically signed, this agreement shall have been deemed to have been entered into at the office of Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc. Located at 101 N. Blair Street, Vinton, VA 24179, USA. Roanoke County shall be the exclusive jurisdiction for resolving disputes related to this agreement. This agreement shall be interpreted and governed in accordance with the laws of Virginia.

The entity which I represent has adequate records to support the information provided to our accountant for our tax return(s).

By signing below, I am personally responsible for the payment of all invoices and amounts due to Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc.  Even though I am signing on behalf of the entity, if the entity does not pay, I personally will pay all amounts due to HHTS.