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. Prepared and signed by the CPA who does the work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Four areas where the rules are unforgiving and the mistakes are expensive. Each has its own page, and each is work we do every season rather than once a year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How the engagement works
Small enough that you deal with one person. Deliberate about which work we take.
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 in the autumn, while those decisions are still open.
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.
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.
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.