This letter is to confirm and clarify the terms of our engagement with you regarding the tax preparation services you have requested for the year ended December 31, 2018. We agree to prepare your business Federal and State (if needed) income tax returns for the year 2018 from the information you provide us. We are under no obligation to determine whether you may have a filing obligation with another state however if we become aware of a possible filing requirement then we will notify you and prepare the extra state returns upon your request.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES: It is your responsibility to provide us with all of the required information to prepare a complete and accurate tax return. You have the final responsibility for your tax return and, therefore, you agree to review them carefully for accuracy and completeness. You agree to retain all the documents (e.g. backup of income and expenses) and other data that form the basis of your tax return. These documents may be necessary to prove the accuracy of your tax return and it is possible the taxing authority may request confirmation of this information. By submitting this information to us you are representing that you have written documentation of the data provided. We will not verify the information you provide us however we possibly may request some clarification.
RECORD RETENTION: Any original documents you provide us will be returned to you upon completion of the tax return and we encourage you to keep these documents in a safe place for at least 5 years. We make copies of some of your documents for our own record purposes but do not expect that we have copied everything you have provided. It is our policy to keep records related to this engagement for 5 years and you agree that upon the expiration of the 5-year period we are free to destroy our records related to this engagement.
GOVERNMENT INQUIRIES: The Taxing Authorities may select your return for an audit or inquiry and they possibly will request you to produce documents, records or other data to substantiate some portions of your tax return. It is your responsibility to provide the requested documents. In the event of a tax examination we will be available to represent you, however, such additional services are not included in the fees for the tax preparation engagement.
PRIOR YEAR TAX RETURNS: If we discover during this engagement that your prior-year tax returns may be affected we will make you aware of this situation. However, we are not to be held responsible for identifying all items that may affect your prior-year returns. We will be available to prepare any amended tax returns as a separate engagement.
DISCUSSIONS WITH THE IRS: The IRS allows you to give us the authority to discuss, on a limited basis, the various aspects of this year's tax return. You provide this consent by checking a box on the tax return and unless you specifically tell us otherwise we will check that box.
FEES FOR SERVICES: Our fees for tax services are based upon the amount of time required for the personnel working on the engagement plus any out-of-pocket expenses. Normally, all invoices are due and payable upon presentation of Tax return with full payment expected prior to filing the tax return with the IRS.
EXTENSION OF TAX RETURN: We understand that sometimes an "extension is required". If you require an extension to delay the normal deadline until the extension time allowed then please indicate below or request our "extension request form" and once we receive an executed copy along with a modest $45 processing fee we will be happy to file the extension.
INCORRECT INFORMATION: The IRS has the ability to impose penalties on the taxpayer and the tax return preparer for submitting incorrect information. Therefore, we may discuss with you when we perceive there is an exposure to penalties and ask for additional disclosures before we can complete the tax return. If we determine a disclosure is required and you refuse to permit the disclosure then we have the right to withdraw from the engagement and request compensation for work performed.
COMMUNICATION: As part of this engagement we may use emails to request and receive required information. We cannot guarantee that emails will not be intercepted by unauthorized third parties. As such, we waive any liability or responsibility for the interceptions or unintentional disclosure of any emails generated as part of this engagement.
TIMING: Every business is different so it is hard to say exactly how much time is needed to process your tax return. However, typically you should allow a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks to process a "straight forward" return after we receive all the required information.
AGREEMENT: If you are in agreement with the terms of this engagement and want us to proceed with the tax preparation then please fill out the required information and sign below. We look forward to working with you and appreciate your business.