Everything people ask, answered in full.

Yes. Part-year resident and non-resident returns are routine for us, including the credit for tax paid to another state that stops you being taxed twice on the same income. Multi-state filers are one of the groups we see most, because it is exactly the situation consumer software handles worst.

Send us the return. We read it at no charge and tell you honestly whether amending is worth it — sometimes it is not, and we will say so. If it is, an amended return where someone else prepared the original is $395, and we handle the correspondence that follows.

No. Clear photographs taken on your phone are fine for almost everything. You keep the originals; the IRS wants you to hold them for at least three years, and we will tell you which ones to keep longer.

Typically five to ten business days from the point your documents are complete, and often quicker outside the March-to-April crunch. An engagement started within ten days of a deadline carries a $250 rush fee, which we tell you about before you agree to anything.

Always. Every return we prepare for a fee is signed by a paid preparer holding a current IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number, as federal law requires. Anyone who prepares your return for money and refuses to sign it is doing something you should walk away from.

No — that is work we do. Catch-up and clean-up bookkeeping is priced at $245 per month of backlog, with a three-month minimum, quoted as a fixed total before we begin so you know the whole cost upfront. In practice it is often faster and cheaper than a business owner trying to reconstruct it themselves.

Yes, and the first year is the one most worth getting right. Start-up cost elections, the accounting method, depreciation elections and whether an S-corporation election makes sense are all decided once and then live with you for years.

That is normal and we handle it. State-by-state apportionment, non-resident withholding and composite return elections are all part of the engagement. Additional state business returns are $145 each and appear on your quote before you commit.

State income and franchise tax returns are included in the return fee for the first state. Secretary of State annual reports and registered-agent renewals are administrative filings rather than tax returns — we will remind you when they are due and can file them with you, but they are not automatically part of the return engagement.

Yes, and we will give you a straight answer including the cases where it costs more than it saves. The entity election analysis is $495 and models the real net benefit after payroll costs, the extra return, state fees and unemployment insurance. If the answer is no, we tell you no.

Whichever you already use, in almost every case. If you are starting from nothing we will recommend something that fits the size of the business rather than the size of our convenience — and the file belongs to you, not to us, so you are never locked in.

No, and please do not offer it. We work from read-only bank feeds or from statements you upload to the secure portal. Nobody at Xelvon needs the ability to move money in your accounts, so nobody has it.

Most people underestimate. Count every line that hits your business bank and card accounts in a typical month, including transfers and small subscriptions. If you land between tiers, tell us and we will look at three months of statements and quote the right one — and if you are consistently under, we move you down.

Yes. Every service here is priced and sold separately. Plenty of clients keep a CPA for the return and use us for the books; we will hand over a clean year-end package in whatever format they want it.

You give 30 days’ written notice, any prepaid months are refunded in full, and you get your complete file — the accounting data, the reconciliations and the supporting documents. Holding a client’s records hostage is a practice we find indefensible.

Yes, and it is common. We migrate year-to-date wage and tax figures so the W-2s at year end are correct and complete, and we reconcile them against what has already been filed on Forms 941 before the first run.

That is the most common payroll we run. A single-owner S-corporation still needs a real payroll with real filings, and the base fee covers it. It is also the setup where getting the wage figure right matters most.

Yes. We collect W-9s, track who crosses the reporting threshold during the year, and file the 1099-NECs. We will also tell you honestly if someone you are treating as a contractor looks like an employee under the tests the IRS and your state apply — that misclassification is expensive to unwind.

If the delay is ours, our accuracy guarantee covers the penalty and interest and we deal with the notice. If we cannot file because information did not reach us in time, it is not covered — which is why we chase, and chase early. The full terms are on the payment and guarantee page.

Usually, yes. We will work in the system you already have if it is fit for purpose, or recommend one if you are starting out. Either way the account is yours and you keep access to it.

For most people, September through November. Late enough that the year is largely known, early enough that a retirement plan can still be opened, income can still be shifted and a withholding change still has months to work. Planning done in January for the year just ended is not planning, it is reporting.

Next year’s quarterly estimated payments are included free with any self-employed or business return. A full mid-year projection with modelled scenarios is a separate engagement at $395, because it is genuinely separate work.

Yes, and we do, regularly. If you are a W-2 employee taking the standard deduction with no side income, there is very little to plan and we will say so rather than sell you a projection. Charging for advice that cannot save anyone money is not a business we want.

A written study supporting the wage an S-corporation owner pays themselves, based on what the work would cost to hire rather than a percentage rumour. It matters because too low invites reclassification and too high wastes the election, and because the figure interacts with retirement contributions and the qualified business income deduction.

Usually, yes — and sooner is much better. Once the year closes, options narrow sharply, but they do not vanish entirely. Retirement contributions for some plan types, IRA contributions and certain elections remain available after December 31.

Usually. Send it the moment you have it — a photograph of every page, including the back. Most notices allow a response window of 30 days from the date printed on the letter, and where more time is genuinely needed an extension can often be requested. Do not let the date pass in silence; that is the one move with no upside.

No. We help plenty of people with notices on returns prepared elsewhere or by themselves. It does affect the limited representation question described above, but reading, analysing and drafting a written response for your signature does not depend on who prepared the original return.

A straightforward notice reviewed with a written response drafted for your signature is $195. A CP2000 underreporter response, which means reconciling every income item against your transcripts, is $495. A penalty abatement request is $350, and transcript retrieval and analysis is $195. If the notice was caused by an error we made, all of it is free and we pay the penalty and interest as well.

Generally, wait. Hold times are long and it is easy to say something unhelpful about a document you have not fully understood yet. Read it, get the transcripts, work out what is actually being asserted, then decide. Anything you say cannot be unsaid.

Same process, and often the same underlying cause — many state notices are triggered automatically by a federal adjustment. We handle state correspondence at the same rates.