HHTS Engagement and Fee Agreement (Business, Trust, & Estates) 

(This must be signed, prior to preparation of the entity tax return, by a responsible party who is authorized as a 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

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 or we feel there is some sort of possible issue with what you did provide. 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 income 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 for taxes to be filed timely, we require that all information for S-Corporations & Partnerships that are using a calendar filing year must be provided to us no later than February 24th 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 25th of each year.  If you submit paperwork within the 20 days of the due date of the return, 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 24th 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 state extension. 

For entities filing within the extension due date, we need your all of your information 20 days prior to the extension due date, in order to file your return timely.  This includes any missing information. There is no second extension.  It is your responsibility to get us all of your information prior to the 20 days of the extension due date so your return can be filed timely.

Portal:  We utilize a portal in order to share information with our clients and get information from our clients.  We use the portal for ongoing returns that we are filing.  If you upload information into the portal and we are not currently doing your return and/or we know we are getting and sharing information in the portal in reference to that same return, you must call the office and let us know that you put information in the portal.  The messaging system in the portal is designed to be used when we are actively doing your return and you want us to handle it through the portal.  Outside of that time, please contact our office directly using our phone number so ensure quick responses to your questions.  Again, when you upload your information for the first time or in pieces before we can start your return, once you are ready to have your taxes prepared, please call and inform the receptionist so we can start the return. 

Important Note:  We stop using or monitoring our portals at 1:00 pm on March 15th and resume use on April 16th or the next day we are open.  We also stop using or monitoring the portals on April 14th at 10:00 am and do not resume use until the next business day after the due date, which is typically April 15th.  During these times you must call the office during our business hours.

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. 

Corporations – Many clients today try and save money and do not use attorneys to incorporate their business.  They use online companies or do it themselves.  The problem is, many of those companies, including when they use the online companies, are not incorporated.  Filing a corporation tax when you are not incorporated is not accurate and you cannot legally file a corporation when you are not one.  Online companies usually do not save you money, since they normally do not file things accurately.  Corporations really need an attorney to ensure that everything was filed legally and to ensure that there are no problems. Attorneys are there to ensure you are protected and things are done legally.  We need verification that you are incorporated with the state that you say you are incorporated with.  This is a requirement that we have.

Clients also must be aware that you must do two things in order to stay a corporation.  First, you must pay a yearly filing fee to the state corporation commission of the state you are incorporated in.  Second, you must file an annual report each year as well.  Failure to do both, means you lose your corporation status and are no longer a corporation, therefore cannot file a corporation income tax return.

It is the responsibility of the tax matters partner, in the corporation, to inform us if you have lost your corporation status prior to us preparing an income tax return.

Partnerships and LLC that elect to be taxed as a Corporation – This is a huge trend in our current times.  We do not suggest it at all, but rather suggest filing a new corporation.  There are a huge number of issues you can run into by doing this, even though IRS allows it.  Because something is allowed, does not mean it is a good idea. In saying that, clients request the we file an election to have them be taxed as an S-Corporation often and we do make the request for clients.  This is notification that we have informed you that we do not suggest it, just as we tell each client each time that make the request for us to file that form. 

For clients who elect to be corporations and then file an S-Corp election, the fact that you are a partnership or an LLC can be a problem if you make that election.  It is important for you to inquire of your attorney if you have any unequal shares of stock or that you have a 704b election in your partnership or LLC agreement prior to making the S-Corp election.  If you have any of those, which we need an attorney to let us know since we are not attorneys, then you cannot be an S-Corporation.  It is the client’s responsibility to check with their attorneys prior to filing that election.

Due 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.  We also need to file an extension if we have requested information and you have brought in only part of the information and the “Information Needed by date has passed.  Many times, clients drop off information and tell our staff it is everything, but it is not and since our receptionist is not a preparer, they cannot tell if it is what is needed or not.  This does not change anything in reference to filing an extension, since we will still only have part of the information we requested.  If you do not have a profit and loss (that would be considered by an accountant to qualify as a profit and loss) then bookkeeping is required, then this means we will automatically have to be put on extension. We might tell you that you will have to prepare a profit and loss and then bring it back.  In that case, you are not considered checked in until we have everything we need to file your taxes and we use the date we get everything to make that determination. If an extension is required or filed, 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.  Payment of taxes, even if estimated, is the responsibility of the client completely.  If you do estimate, which most client must do, we suggest you estimate high.  You can always get refund back if you overpay.  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. 

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 you to fill out a form for an extension request in order for us to file that 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 or for 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, fill out the extension request form, and sign an engagement & fee agreement.  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. If you are not using our portal 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, 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 fill out the extension request form and sign this engagement & fee agreement. If we have left a message (either by phone or in the 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 1:00 pm 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 pm 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 1:00 pm on the due date to avoid us from attempting to protect you and filing an extension for you as a zero-balance due extension. 

Portal Note: We stop using or monitoring our portals at 1:00 pm on March 15th and resume use on April 16th or the next day we are open.  We also stop using or monitoring the portals on April 14th at 10:00 am and do not resume use until the next business day after the due date, which is typically April 15th.  During these times you must call the office during our business hours.    

We do taxes, after the due dates in the order in which all the information is received or the order in which additional information is provided, unless the return (due to various issues or scenarios) will not be worked on until after April 15th.  Then the return is scheduled in order after April 15th.  We do not guarantee when any return will be finished, since there is no way of knowing until we are 100% complete.  We can get possible estimates, but they are always only estimates and may be way off depending on many circumstances. 

Filing Requirement: C-Corporation, S-Corporations, Partnerships, and Non-profits (except religious worship houses, example: Church or Synagogue) are required to file a return every year no matter what, including the final termination year, where they must mark their return as a final return.  There is no income filing threshold like for individuals.  Decedent estates generally have a $600 filing threshold that if income equals or exceeds that they must file a return.  Trust generally have a $300 filing threshold that if income equals or exceeds that they must file a return.  In some instances, if under the filing threshold, a return is still required or highly suggested that they file a return anyway.

Penalties for not filing an extension – There are extreme penalties for not filing an extension.  There are, depending on your entity type, penalties & interest also for not paying in what you would owe in taxes by the due date.  Those penalties/interest go up every month.  You never want to miss filing an extension for an entity (even if you ask us to file a zero-balance due extension), so please contact us when we call and leave a message so we can make sure you have an extension.  The responsibility to file an extension is on the customer to talk to us, fill out the online extension request form, sign and submit to us an Engagement Agreement and to ensure an extension is filed for them. The penalties alone for not filing an extension for a partnership or corporation can put many small businesses out of business. 

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.  Each entity and person needs an extension request form filled out for them and an engagement & fee agreement signed and submitted for them. 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 and to fill out the appropriate required information we need to file those extensions.  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.

When you provide a profit and loss & a balance sheet, which we require, we do not use other forms or receipts for the return, but the profit and loss only.  We only look at receipts if we have a specific question on that transaction.  All information must be on a profit and loss and a balance sheet.  We will ask questions about purchases and sales of assets if you indicate that they happened or we have a question about it happening, but some clients hide expenses in a mess of papers that we would never know or see.  We do not use receipts or your random papers for the most part.  If you have a profit and loss and a balance sheet that is what we use.  When you use one of our preprinted profit and loss with balance sheet included forms and leave places blank, we assume you did not pay them. The only receipts we actually need is personal property tax bills and real estate tax bills.  We of course need all tax statements.  For mortgage interest, we use the 1098 instead of what you write on your profit and loss.  For sale of assets, we do require closing statements from purchase and sale as well as the 1099-S tax statement.  If you do not provide the purchase closing statement, we cannot include those closing cost. 

Bookkeeping: Each client is required to have bookkeeping finished prior to having us complete their income taxes.  However, many clients just throw receipts into their taxes and want us to add up or figure out what goes where.  First, there is a fee starting at $100.00 for up to the first hour and then $100 per hour prorated in 15 minutes increments to add up receipts.  Second, we do not do actual bookkeeping, but just add stuff up, using the best of our ability, to figure out what is or is not deductible.  We make no warranties, guarantees, no do we take any responsibility for the accuracy of what we come up with.  Receipts often times are unreadable or coded in a way we do not know what it is for and many times the returns are such a mess it is impossible to have any idea what goes where.  Even if neatly organized in your opinion, that does not change the situation.  Actual bookkeeping is what is needed to ensure a 100% accurate return and preparers can do what we can, but nothing replaces actual bookkeeping.  Also, people put estimates that were never paid, duplicates, and bills that the insurance company paid a portion of, but we would not know that.  Us adding up your receipts can either over inflate or understate your income or expenses.  We always suggest either getting a bookkeeper to do it for you or using one of our worksheets to ensure accuracy.  If you have us add up things, which we call bookkeeping only to have a category to bill it as, you are acknowledging that it is not actual bookkeeping and you take all responsibilities for what is on the return and hold Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc. and its employees harmless of anything that is not categorized correctly, overstated, or understated. 

If you pay Hampden Hills separately to do monthly bookkeeping for your business, then your bookkeeping falls under another engagement & fee agreement and you do not have to worry about this section in reference to what you pay us for, but any part of your return you do not pay us to do monthly bookkeeping for would apply.  Paying us for monthly bookkeeping separately under a bookkeeping agreement has to be for the year we are doing the return for and we do not start any new monthly bookkeeping accounts for any clients during the months of January - April. 

Forms Provided by Client:  (Checks for Direct Deposit or Direct Debit) – We require for a direct debit or a direct deposit a voided check or an ACH Deposit Form.  If you decided to use a voided check and provide one to us, we highly suggest and always request that you give us a voided check. Voided checks help provide protection for our clients.  If you do not provide us a voided check, either because you only have one check and need to pay us or for any other reason and we scan in that check not marked voided, then you bear all responsibility for that check if something happens and it is some way is used fraudulently. 

(Flash Drives) – We ask that you do not provide flash drives for your tax information, however we do have clients who provide them anyway. We take no responsibility over your flash drive or the contents of anything on that drive. You provide it to us at your own risk and you must have a backup of any information that is on that drive.  Do not provide us information that is not backed up or stored somewhere else. We take every effort to ensure no malware is on our computers, however if malware makes it onto your drive, we are not responsible so we ask clients to not provide flash drives in the first place.  Flash drives are not part of our business model and you provide them totally at your own expense and assume all risk over the drive if anything happens to it.  It is also very easy for those to get misplaced or forgotten about and if it is misplaced, we provide a credit only on your tax fee to us of $10.00 if we have proof that you did indeed provide us a flash drive.  We do not replace the flash drive and $10 is the maximum credit we will apply to the tax bill.

Estimated Taxes: This section applies to C-Corporations, Decedent Estates, & Trust.  For S-Corporations and Partnerships, they do not normally owe any taxes since they are pass through entities.  There are rare instances when an S-Corporation or a Partnership may owe tax and in those rare instances this section would apply. In saying that, we normally only have trust or decedent estates actually pay estimated taxes.  I have never had a C-Corporation, S-Corporation, or Partnership ever ask us to prepare estimated taxes nor have I done a return where any of those 3 have ever made an estimated tax payment.  I have also never prepared a return where an S-Corporation or Partnership has ever owed on their returns since it is very rare to see that happen and most clients would never fall into those situations. 

We only file estimated taxes if a client request for us to do so.  There is a charge to prepare, figure out, and/or print estimated tax vouchers and for those who pay online or by direct debit, there is still a fee for us to calculate and do everything.  When we estimate taxes, it is an estimate based on information we have at that moment from the client using the tax laws in that moment of time as released by IRS.  When tax bills pass, it takes IRS several weeks to figure out how that will work on the actual tax form. Some tax changes are in the moment, some are handled at different levels, but until that guidance comes out from IRS, we do not base what we do on those bills that pass.  We do not guarantee we will hit it 100% on the mark, due to multiple factors that are either unknown or can change.  As a general rule, our goal is to get a client to owe zero on their return, but that also means no refund.  This is not necessarily what would need to be paid to get you out of a penalty.  In cases where income is high, IRS and/or the states can raise the threshold on penalty calculation from 90% to 110%.  We do not figure estimated taxes based on penalty, unless a client request for us to do so.  We only figure estimated taxes based on getting the bottom line to zero. In the past, we would use the 110% calculation method, but it upset most clients and caused a lot of issues.  When we changed, 99% of our clients preferred using the zero bottom line method and they were much happier after that change.  Now a client must request for us to use the higher method if that is what they want.  Additionally, penalties can come if you did not pay for the tax in the quarter owed, which we cannot get around always.  We do try different methods to see if we can get you out of the penalty when we filed your income taxes, but we cannot get around it on the estimated taxes always. This is your notification of these situations. 

We have different ways we handle estimated taxes: 1st is we figure them on your income taxes, based on the return we prepared in the current filing tax year with us just asking if income will remain the same next year, secondly, we figure them quarterly by clients bringing in their information to us on the 1st few days of the month that the estimated tax is due.  Quarterly is the most accurate way to handle your estimated taxes.

When it comes to quarterly filing of taxes, we again have different ways we handle the estimated taxes.  We can use the total method, which about 25% of our clients want which is based on the tax return as a whole or we can use the method most clients want, which is to only do estimates on one particular aspect like their business or sale of an asset.  The most accurate way is to do it on the entire tax return, but clients must give us the information in order for us to do it that way and most clients choose not to. 

In either case, there is no guarantee we will be able to get your taxes to zero.  If we use the method of only calculating taxes on 1 part or section, we do not figure in the effect of other items on the return, which can change the calculation.  For businesses, rentals, and farms, we must have a profit and loss in order to do your estimated tax payments.  We do not do bookkeeping in order to prepare estimated taxes, unless you pay for our monthly bookkeeping service.  If you have a business the profit & loss either needs to be Year-to-Date through end of month of estimated taxes. Example:  It is quarter 3, then we need Profit & Loss Statement from January 1 – September 30th.  We do not reference older ones you gave us.  This way we can keep our fees low for our clients. 

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 $300.00.

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.

If your return is e-filed and rejected and required to be mailed into the IRS or the State, there is an additional charge for extra forms that are required when a return must be mailed and to handle the mailed in return including printing and time to redo return to change it to a mailed return.  In addition, if the rejection is due to additional information needed by the client, additional fees are charged to change the return for that and we charge for any new forms required as a result of those changes.

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 $425.

•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 $450.00.

•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 50-minute consultation appointment is $100.00.

•The minimum fee for a letter written is $65.00.

•The charge for hourly services connected to taxes, for example, tax bookkeeping $100/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.

•The minimum fee for 50-minute appointment for tax prep is $300.00 for 1st appointment and prior to us starting your taxes.  For clients who have us complete and file their return, we put a credit for this fee against the return and the client does not have to pay it.  In order for this credit to be applied, we must finish and file the return.  We do not file returns without the return being paid for.  Most clients do not see this fee in reference to their return.  It would apply for those who do an appointment and then do not have us file the return, instead pay us for what we did and our time.

•The minimum fee for each additional 50-minute appointment for tax prep $120 for additional appointments for same return/returns.

•The minimum fee for an appointment about your taxes after they are complete or we have worked on them, but we have not already had an appointment about that return is $65.00.

•There are also some additional fees listed in particular sections throughout the document.

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.

Outstanding Individual Fees: 

•S-Corporations: If any shareholder owes money to HHTS, then services cannot be performed on the S-Corporation until all outstanding money is paid by the individual shareholders that are due to HHTS.  This includes any assistance on the S-Corporation return after it is filed.

•Partnership Returns: If any partner owes money to HHTS, then services cannot be performed on the Partnership until all outstanding money is paid by the partners or the partners accounts are paid in full.  This includes any assistance on the Partnership return after it is filed.

•Trust: If the trustee owes any outstanding money to HHTS, then no work can be performed on the trust until that money is paid, which includes assistance on the Trust after return is filed.

•Estate Return: If the administrator, executor, or whoever is in charge of the return owe outstanding money to HHTS or the deceased owes outstanding money to HHTS, then all money must be paid before work can be performed on the estate, including assistance after the return is filed.

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 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.

Missing Information: - When information is missing on the tax return or we require additional information to be able to prepare or compete your return, then we ask for that information to be provided for us.  From that point, it is the responsibility of the client to get us all of that information in a timely fashion.  If information is missing or information needs to be provided, that means we will have redo your taxes again once the missing information comes in and reschedule additional time to prepare your return given that information provided can change an entire return even those other areas we have completed based on the information we had.  Those rescheduled times are done in order that additional information is brought in and in between already scheduled appointments.  Missing information will delay the completion of your return and those rescheduled times are scheduled out when available. 

Some clients will piece meal the information (bring at various times), we do not schedule the additional time until all missing information is provided.  Also, some clients will bring only part of what is needed and tell our staff this is all the information requested, resulting in multiple rescheduled times and severely delaying the completion of the return.  If a client tells our staff that all information has been provided and it is not, at a minimum a 3rd scheduled time will have to be provided to complete the return and there is a charge for that at a minimum fee of $65.00.  If a client brings in information and says this is everything, but information is still missing, it will force an extension to be filed.

Tax Season Restrictions:  We do not file multiple years of taxes during February – April 15th, but instead file those returns after tax season.  For people who require bookkeeping in order for us to be able to file a return for them and you want us to do that bookkeeping for you, that return will have to have an extension filed and be prepared after tax season.  For people who are filing a prior year return during March 1 through April 15th, those returns will have to be filed after April 15th.  Also, if you are a new client and you have more than $15 assets to enter for deprecation, that return will have to be done after tax season and once setup, then we can file regularly from then on. 

State Only Returns: In order for us to file a state return, we must prepare the federal return.  The federal return, must go with the state return and another person or firms federal return cannot be filed with a state return that we file.  It must be the federal return that we prepare. You must pay for a full tax, both federal and state in order for us to file a state only return.  If you filed the federal already with the IRS, then what you filed must be correct and match our return exactly.  If it does not, your federal will have to be amended and then we will file the state for you at the same time.  If we do file a state only, you are fully responsible for the federal return and any questions that come up about that return. 

Appointments: The majority of our clients returns can be done without an appointment, however in some cases a preparer will request that you make an appointment.  Only in a few scenarios does it assist the preparer to have an appointment in order to prepare your entities income taxes.  Clients can, if they desire, make an appointment. 

We handle appointments two ways and those are based upon when you make the appointment and what you are trying to make an appointment for.  In terms of when you make the appointment, we mean if you desire to make an appointment in tax season or out of tax season. 

If you are making an appointment to get your income taxes complete (meaning prior to us preparing your taxes), then we offer one appointment for 50 minutes for that service and if you meet the requirements, then there is no additional cost for making that appointment verses dropping off your income taxes, if you have us complete and file the return.  For those that choose to make an appointment, the majority of returns are completed during that appointment. 

If you desire an appointment after we have worked on your return/s or completed return/s, then there is a charge for that appointment, which is indicated on the fee schedule above.  We always call to go over your return with you and give results and our receptionist for those picking up in the office also goes over the return briefly with you when you pick up, although most of the clients do not answer the phone and never call back on that return.  If you finish in the portal, we put the results and information in the portal for you. 

We do not offer appointments during tax season for prior year returns, multiple year returns, or consultation appointments during tax season.  Those must be made after tax season so we can complete our clients returns by the due date.  We also do not offer appointments on March 15th, April 14th and 15th, September 15, & October 15th.  Those are due dates for returns so no appointments are offered on those dates. 

Appointments are subject to availability and if you have a due date and desire an appointment I suggest booking it well in advance.  When an appointment is booked, it is not a guarantee you will be able to come that day.  There are issues like power outages, communication outages, inclement weather, natural disasters, unforeseen events, and employees/owners getting sick that can force those appointments to be rescheduled.  The reschedule is based on availability and will be done in the soonest possible time, but again subject to availability.  We do not suggest making an appointment near a due date due to one of these events might force an extension or make your taxes be late, which is not the responsibility of HHTS.  It is the client’s responsibility to get their information to us timely, to give us enough time to prepare their returns, to in addition have enough time to get any missing information for us, and then for us to have that additional needed time to input that missing information. 

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 – If you provide us un-opened mail, then we require your permission in order to open it.  By giving us the unopened mail and signing this document, this is you giving us permission to open all mail that you have given to us that is not opened.  In saying that, we request that you please open your envelopes for us prior to dropping off your documents. We do charge a fee to open mail.

Note: We return everything you give us, but not always the blank envelopes.  If you want the envelopes, please keep them at home.  With the exception of payment for our services, do not give us checks written to you, your checkbook, cash money, credit cards, or anything like that, and there is no reason that you should give them to us for the preparation of your taxes.  We might ask for check registers when preparing a return, but not checkbooks.  We again always return everything, but we take no responsibility over those items when you give them to us.  If they get lost, it is your responsibility.  We take no personal responsibility over your personal items.  Other than payment for our services, we do not allow clients to give us cash money or credit cards.  If they are in your taxes and we were unaware, we do return them to you, but they should not be in your taxes.  If a client says they had them in their taxes and did not get them back, we bare no responsibility over that. It is your responsibility to make sure you do not give them to us, other than for payment for services. 

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.  If the responsibility of the tax matters contact, for the entity, to inform us of any and all filing requirements for various jurisdictions.  We take no responsibility if you fail to inform us of a filing requirement in another jurisdiction.      

Controlled Group – IRS tax rules apply to parent-subsidiary (which we do not prepare those taxes), brother-sister entities, and combined groups, forcing aggregation of employees for coverage testing for items like for 401(k) and Affordable Care Insurance and limiting shared tax benefits.  One of the limited shared tax benefits is the 179 deductions for assets.

Controlled Group: Two or more businesses linked by common ownership.  These are called brother-sister entities.  They have five or fewer individuals/trust who own 80% or more of multiple corporations, with more than 50% identical ownership. 

Example: Husband and wife each own two corporations and are 50/50 owners in each company.  You have a controlled group.  Husbands and wives are considered one owner for controlled group tax rules. 

It is the responsibility of the client to inform us if you have a controlled group.  Simply having us prepare your various taxes is not notification.  Different people might prepare the different returns and the returns might, and usually are, be done at different times making it where the prepare might not link the two in their minds since we normally concentrate on the return we are preparing at that moment. 

Depreciation, 179 Deduction, Bonus, and Recapture: Every business that files a return including non-profit businesses must deprecate the assets they purchase.  There are some exceptions, if we know about your assets when we prepare your return, we can take in some situations, but for the most part assets must be depreciated, which means the expense is taken over a period of years.

IRS has rules to accelerate those deductions in things like Bonus depreciation and a 179 deduction. It is not always in the best interest of the client to take either of these options. Also taking these options can create issues sometimes on the entity state return.  If it does create issues, it will increase the cost of your return to take these options for not just this year, but in multiple years ahead as well since this will create an ongoing issue for the entire life of the asset.  Non-Profits do not have the option to take either of these items.  If you sell the asset, prior to the allotted useful life or if business use falls below 50%, this can generate recapture of the expenses taken in bonus and/or 179 deductions.  Many clients do not keep the asset for the useful life of the asset so we take that into consideration in our decisions. 

Preparers generally do what they feel is the best for the client in terms of deprecation.  What we do might change in any given year.  If a client wants a desired benefit in this section, it is the responsibility of the client to tell us in advance of your desire.  It is also the responsibility of the client to inform us and any asset purchases, trades, sales, or if business use falls below 50%.  We do not normally ask the client about the methods of depreciation or elections that we take so if that is your desire, you must inform us of that prior to us starting your taxes.  If we make the decision to take one of these methods and it increases the cost of your return, the price is not a consideration for us in our decision of what to take. We take what we feel is in the best interest of our clients. Most preparers are not even aware that there is a price difference since they just concentrate on the final price of the return.  Preparers and staff only know the price of common forms, not the price of the over 1,500 tax forms in the software. 

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.

Partnership Partner & S-Corporation Shareholder Basis Worksheet:  In order for us to prepare an accurate tax return, it is important that we know the basis of partners and shareholders.  This is critical information and it is the responsibility of the partner or the shareholder to track their own basis.  If you are a new client, we require that we get a basis worksheet for each partner and each shareholder.  As an additional step for partnerships, we require the outside basis for each partner, which is not normally tracked by your previous accountant.  Your previous accountant should have basis worksheets for each shareholder and inside basis worksheets for each partner.  All professional income tax software has those basis worksheets in them.  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 client’s 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 have been working hard since 2018 to make reporting of basis required and trackable on tax returns each year.  Though it is the ultimate responsibility of the client to track their basis, we give you these worksheets 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 forms. In order for basis to be the most correct that it can be, normally people have had to have an accountant prepare the bookkeeping since the inception of the company and when I say accountant, I do not mean a bookkeeper.  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 done in the most correct fashion given available information.  We require that proof due to some 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:  As of October 20, 2025, we stopped using e-mail for income tax returns.  We now use our portal system instead.  If you want any taxes or supporting documentation e-mailed 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 e-mail 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 any communications done via e-mail 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.

Direct Deposit or Direct Debit:  Corporations & Partnerships cannot do a direct debit on the federal, but instead must pay any amounts due on EFTPS.  This is paid directly by the corporation or partnership and not by HHTS.  IRS has enabled businesses to have an online IRS account, which may be able to accept payments in that system.  Any amounts due on the state also cannot be done directly debited by corporations and partnerships, those must be paid either online or by check depending on the state in which you are paying and same goes for local taxes in states that have local taxes due. Starting the 2025 tax year, IRS requires direct deposit of any and all refunds.  Due to that, we must have either a voided check on file or an ACH deposit form on file for your entity prior to filing your return if you want that refund.    

Non-Profits who file a 990 do not get refund and generally do not owe on federal.  Generally, there is no state filing requirement for a 990 return.  The same is the case for homeowners when they operate as required.  There are instances when they could owe, but that would have to be paid by check.

People who file a 990-T, normally they are non-profits, must pay that federal return by check.

Estates and Trust:  In order to do a direct deposit of a refund or a direct debit of an amount due, we need a routing number and an account number.  We must get proof of your account in the form of a Voided Check or an ACH deposit Form, which is also called a Payroll Direct Deposit Form.  Those forms must have your entity name on them and in terms of the ACH or Payroll Direct Deposit Form, it must be filled out completely by the bank or preprinted from the bank.  Using a blank form that you fill in does not qualify.  We do not use deposit slip tickets or hand written information. 

If you decided you want us to use anything other than a Voided Check or ACH Deposit Form/Payroll Direct Deposit Form, then we do not guarantee, in any way, you will get your refund or your payment will be debited from your account and any help on getting your refund or helping with the amount due will be subject to a charge if we choose to offer assistance in this situation, which is also not guaranteed.  We take no responsibility, in any way, including us typing the information differently than the way you gave us in this situation.  Not using the appropriate forms bypasses all of our checks and balances in place in the office and you assume all responsibility if you choose to not use a Void Check or ACH Deposit Form/Payroll Direct Deposit Form. For direct debits, if something goes wrong, you will be responsible, in this situation, for all penalties and interest.  We highly advise clients to only use a Voided Check or ACH deposit form/payroll direct form for their taxes.  If you do not use a supported form, we also do not store that information to pull to the next year, we only store information that is on the forms we support.

Our firm putting direct deposit information on the return, does not guarantee the government will give you the refund via, direct deposit.  There are many reasons the government might switch your return to another type of payment means. If for some reason your return does not get a direct deposit, it will be switched to another means. 

Refunds:  We do not guarantee refunds. They are paid, subject to the rules the government has in place, that they can change at any moment.  If your entity owes back taxes, for estates the deceased owed back taxes, or any of several reasons, the government might take your refund.  If they decided to review your return or a group of returns that you return happens to be a part of then your refund is delayed until they complete it.  They might change your refund due to audit.

If your refund comes in higher than what we said, you need to bring us the letters showing why to see if you even are due to receive that higher refund.  In 95% of the cases, the person is not due that higher refund and then has to paid it back after a few years with a lot of interest. This is your notice to bring those letters in and let us handle them.  In the end, getting refunds fixed is a very hard and sometimes impossible task when refunds are higher than they should be.  We always tell our clients and this is your notice to put the amount in your bank and do not spend it until after 3 years.  Our letters can be used to offset the interest in those cases, but due to laws on offsetting interest, that is not a guarantee. 

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 or partnerships 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 a personal property return 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 prepare these returns for you if you want them filed timely.  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.  It is mandatory that you inform our staff that a personal property tax return is included when you drop off your taxes.

Affiliations: 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.  For any legal advice portions of this document, we are not attorneys, so please consult your attorney on these sections.

PLEASE REVIEW AND SIGN:

If this document is in accordance with your understanding of the terms of this agreement, please sign and hit submit.  If you have a paper version of this document please sign and return it to our office. We require this Engagement Agreement to be signed and in our file prior to beginning tax preparation.

In signing this document, you affirm that the information you provide to HHTS is true, complete, and correct to the best of my (our) knowledge.  You are giving us permission to open any un-opened mail and if you do not want any mail opened by us, then you are stating you have opened that mail prior to giving us your information.

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, Virginia 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 the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The entity which I represent has adequate records to support the information provided to our accountant for our tax return(s).  That you are agreeing each part of this entire document, including the fees, collection, and court section of this document.  If any part of this document is deemed invalid, the entire rest of the document stands as a valid agreement. 

By signing below, you are stating that you have legal authority to sign on behalf of the entity and that you personally responsible for the payment of all invoices and amounts due to Hampden Hills Tax Service, Inc.  Even though you are signing on behalf of the entity, if the entity does not pay our fee, you personally will pay all amounts due to HHTS.