Hiltzik CPA, PLLC
For returns that stopped being routine.
A boutique practice for owners of closely held businesses, and for individuals whose tax position spans more than one state, more than one country, or more than one kind of income. The CPA on your engagement is the one who signs the return.
Thirty minutes, no charge, and an honest read on your situation before anything is agreed.
Who this is for
Less a list of professions than a list of situations. If one of these describes your year, the return is no longer a data-entry exercise.
S corporation election
The entity choice is no longer simple
Profit has grown to where an S corporation election might pay for itself — or where someone has told you it will, without running your numbers or accounting for the New York City general corporation tax.
RSUs, ISOs and ESPP
Your compensation is mostly equity
RSUs withheld at the 22% supplemental rate against a 35% or 37% marginal rate, incentive stock options with an alternative minimum tax exposure, ESPP, and a broker cost basis that is wrong more often than it is right.
Residency and sourcing
You moved, or are about to
To another state, to another country, or to Puerto Rico under Act 60 — where residence, source and the treatment of pre-move appreciation all have to agree with one another and with the US return.
Form 5472
You own US assets from overseas
A foreign-owned single-member LLC with a Form 5472 obligation, or US real property held through an entity, where the penalty for silence is fixed and substantial.
Material participation
You bought a short-term rental
And were promised a deduction. Whether it survives depends on the average stay, your participation, the cost segregation study and the excess business loss limitation — in that order.
Prior-year cleanup
The last few years need untangling
Returns prepared by software, or by someone who has since gone quiet. Missed depreciation, an entity classified by accident, or filings that were never made at all.
Where we go deep
Where the rules are unforgiving and the mistakes are expensive, and where we work every season rather than once a year. If your situation is not here, it is still worth a call.
Forms 3921, 6251, 8949
Equity compensation
RSUs, incentive and non-qualified options, ESPP. The withholding gap, the AMT exposure on an ISO exercise held across a year end, and the cost-basis correction that is not made unless someone makes it.
Section 469 and 280A
Short-term rentals
Material participation, the seven-day average stay, cost segregation and bonus depreciation, the section 280A personal-use rules, and the excess business loss limitation in the year it finally bites.
Form 8898, Section 937
Puerto Rico, Act 60
Decree conditions, the bona fide residence tests, the source rules on appreciation that accrued before the move, and the 2035 date after which the treatment of that appreciation changes.
Form 5472, pro-forma 1120
Foreign-owned US LLCs
Form 5472 with a pro-forma 1120, including delinquent years. Reportable transactions, the reasonable-cause statement, and the fact that the penalty applies whether or not the entity had income.
Forms 2555, 1116, 8621
Americans abroad
The foreign earned income exclusion weighed against the foreign tax credit, treaty positions, FBAR and FATCA, and the PFIC reporting that a European brokerage account quietly creates. The US return is our work; local filing goes to a partner in the country.
CP2000 and amended returns
Notices and cleanup
A CP2000 that assumes a zero basis on a foreign brokerage sale, a state asking why a rental loss was claimed, an entity classified by accident, or years that were never filed at all. Reconstruct the basis, write the reasonable-cause statement, answer it before it becomes an assessment.
How the engagement works
Small enough that you know who is handling your return. Deliberate about which work we take.
The first call
Thirty minutes, no charge. You describe the year, we tell you what is actually at stake in it, and we both decide whether it makes sense to work together.
The fee, in writing
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before work starts. What moves the number is complexity rather than hours — how many states, whether there is a business return, whether there is equity, rental or cross-border activity, and how much of the prior year has to be untangled first.
The autumn, not April
The useful part of a tax engagement happens before the return exists. By April the entity election, the compensation split, the timing of a sale and the retirement contribution are all fixed, and the return is only a record of decisions already made. So our clients hear from us while those decisions are still open.
We would rather lose the engagement than sell a structure that does not pay for itself. Below a certain level of profit an S corporation costs more in payroll, a second return and city tax than it saves. There are years when the right advice is to wait, to close the entity you already have, or to keep the preparer you have. We will say so on the first call, when it is still free.
Book a call
Start with a conversation
Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation. We talk through your situation, give you our honest read on it, and see whether it makes sense to work together. We can work with you in any state, and most of our clients have never been to the office.