FAQs

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What’s the difference between an EA and CPA?

When it comes to tax professionals with the authority to represent you before the IRS, there are three types with unlimited representation rights: Enrolled Agents (EAs), Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), and Tax Attorneys. An easy and honest way of thinking about it is that CPAs typically specialize in accounting and sometimes work in tax, while EAs specialize in tax and sometimes work in accounting. If you’re looking for dedicated tax expertise, personalized service, and someone who can represent you before the IRS with confidence, an Enrolled Agent is a powerful partner to have in your corner.

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How do I get started as a new client?

Go to the contact page and feel free to send an email or give me a call. We can set up an introductory call to figure out how we can help, or we can email you a short questionnaire to learn more about your needs. Whether you’re located in the Sheboygan County area or elsewhere, we can meet in person or virtually. Let us know what works best for you!

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Who do you typically work with?

Whether you’re in Wisconsin or any other state, we work with individuals, families, self-employed professionals, and small business owners—from simple W-2 filers to those with complex tax needs, rental properties, investments, and business entities. There really is no individual tax return too simple or complex that we can’t complete.

Regardless of your filing status, if all you have is a few W-2s or 1099s, property taxes and mortgage interest, or if you rent, we can guarantee that you won’t pay a dollar over the base price for your tax return. Some of the items that would increase the cost of an individual tax return are things such as brokerage activity, rental income, self-employment/gig-work income, and certain credits that increase complexity.

For corporations and partnerships, whether you need tax prep, tax planning, bookkeeping, or payroll, there’s almost nothing we can’t handle. If you have a business and are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable tax professional, we’re right here and we would love to hear from you to see if we can provide the solutions you’re looking for!

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How much does it cost to do my taxes? What do you need? Can’t I just do it myself?

DIY – If your taxes are simple, you absolutely can file yourself. However, if you want peace of mind, to maximize your refund, or have changes in your situation (marriage, kids, new job, retirement, etc.), an Enrolled Agent ensures accuracy, catches things software can miss, and helps avoid costly mistakes.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU (Individual) – new individual tax return clients will need to provide a copy of their previous year or most recently filed tax return. Whether you are a new or returning client, we’ll need all the tax forms you received for the year. These often include W-2s, 1099s, and proof of deductions or credits (student loan interest, education expenses, daycare costs, etc.).

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU (Corp./Partnership) – If you have a corporation or partnership, we’ll need the previous three years of tax returns, depreciation schedules, and a few other items. With corporate and partnership tax returns being significantly more complex that an individual tax return, we can provide you a checklist to help you gather everything that we’ll need!

COSTS & FEES (Individual) – Finally, the cost depends on the complexity of your return. Basic W-2 returns cost less than returns involving self-employment, investments, or rental properties. Our individual tax returns start at $175 and basic individual returns will cost between $175-$250. Complex individual returns start at $250 and typically cost between $250 and $750. Highly complex individual returns can cost more but it all depends on how much reportable activity you have during the year. Things such as brokerage/investment activity, income from rental properties, self-employment income, partnership income, etc. will cause the preparation fees to increase.

COSTS & FEES (Corp./Partnership) – Our corporate and partnership tax return fees start at $750 and go up from there depending on the complexity. We can provide an accurate estimate after meeting in person, reviewing the basis tracking, and reviewing the three most recent tax returns. If you have what we would call a “simple partnership return” with little to no activity, there is a good chance that we’ll be able to complete your partnership return for no more than $750. If you would like to share your business or individual tax situation with us, contact us for a personalized quote!

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What can an EA do to help me with my business taxes?

If you own a business, partnering with an Enrolled Agent (EA) gives you access to a federally licensed tax expert who specializes in helping business owners stay compliant, save on taxes, and handle IRS matters with confidence.

As an EA, we can prepare and file your federal and state business tax returns—whether you operate as a sole proprietor, partnership, S corporation, or C corporation. They provide proactive tax planning to help minimize liabilities, advise on the most tax-efficient entity structure, estimate quarterly tax payments, and guide decisions like owner compensation and profit distributions. Beyond filing, EAs are authorized to represent your business before the IRS in audits, collections, or other tax issues, including responding to IRS notices or negotiating payment arrangements. Many EAs also assist with payroll tax compliance, bookkeeping reviews, and ensuring your financial records align with your tax filings. Most importantly, they offer year-round support—not just during tax season—to keep your business compliant and help you make informed financial decisions as tax laws change.

Regarding preparation fees, sole proprietors and single-member LLCs are considered individual returns because they are filed on their own schedules and forms and are filed directly with your individual tax return. However, corporations and partnerships required to file tax return forms 1065, 1120, and 1120-S are subject to our corporate/partnership fees. The corporate/partnership fees are higher due to the complexity and time it takes to accurately complete these types of tax returns.

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Tax and accounting services can be expensive… do you offer any discounts?

For individual tax returns, we offer a 10% discount for military veterans, law enforcement & corrections officers, first responders, public/private school teachers, and members of clergy. We also offer discounts for military veteran owned businesses. On the topic of military veterans, we understand that not all of our service members make it back home and if you’re a family member of a gold-star family, you will receive a 25% discount on your tax preparation and/or tax planning services. We also offer reduced tax preparation fees for high school and college student dependents who are either required to file a tax return or are not required to but wish to file because they qualify for a tax refund.

We also offer incentives for referrals! For every referral you send to our office, you’ll receive a $25 discount up to the full cost of your individual tax return. That’s right, want your tax return done for free? Refer us to your friends and family! Our only requirement is that the referral needs to tell us who they were referred by before we complete and file their tax return. Discounts will not be granted if the referral informs us that they were referred by you after their tax return has been completed and filed.

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Payroll Fees: Explained in more detail

Our full-service payroll option handles every aspect of your payroll process, so you can focus on running your business. This includes accurate calculation of wages, direct deposit for employees, filing all required federal and state payroll tax forms, remitting payroll tax payments on your behalf, and ongoing support for any payroll questions or adjustments. The filing of Forms W-3 and W-2 are included in the full-service option but the processing and issuing of Form 1099 will be charged separately. We offer flexible payroll schedules to meet your needs, including biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly options. Due to the complexity and effort in the set-up process for payroll services, we do not offer any hourly or “one-time” rates for payroll.

We also offer a compliance only option because we understand that sometimes businesses like to run their payroll “in-house” but still need a tax professional to file their quarterly and annual payroll tax returns. Instead of monthly fees, you’ll be charged quarterly for the filing of quarterly payroll returns and once more at the end of the year for the filing of annual payroll tax returns for both federal and state. With the compliance only option, the filing of Forms W-3, W-2, and 1099 are not automatically included and will be listed as additional charges.

Contact us today if you would like to know more about the specific criteria and services included in all four tiers of our payroll services!

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Bookkeeping Fees: Explained in more detail

Our bookkeeping services include categorizing transactions, reconciling bank accounts, generating monthly financial reports, and providing ongoing support. We understand that sometimes businesses just need a clean-up or catch-up and may not be interested in any of the bookkeeping tiers. If you’re not interested in our tiered bookkeeping services, we do offer bookkeeping services at the hourly rates provided on our pricing page.

The way we price our bookkeeping services is by the average number of transactions per month. Our minimum monthly bookkeeping charge is $250 per month. In order to provide an accurate estimate for bookkeeping services we will need to verify the transaction activity of your accounts. We can do this by access to your QuickBooks Online Account OR by looking at account statements for all of your business accounts for at least the most recent nine-months. Typically, on any bank, credit card, or line of credit (LOC) account statement, the first page will provide the number of transactions for the period the statement covers. We would need the total monthly transactions for the most recent 9-to-12 month period for each bank, credit card, or LOC account your business has. Once we have those numbers we divide the total transactions by the number of months and that give us our monthly average. Bookkeeping services are charged per transaction:

Standard bookkeeping transaction fee: $2.50 per transaction

Bookkeeping with class or project tracking fee: $3.50 per transaction

Here’s a quick example. Let’s say we confirm that across all accounts for a business, that they had 1,750 transactions over the last 12 months. That would be a monthly average of around 150 transactions per month. With the standard bookkeeping fee ($2.50 per transaction) the monthly cost that we would charge, would be around $380 per month. Let’s say the company is a construction business and that standard bookkeeping isn’t detailed enough. The construction business needs their bookkeeping to include class or project tracking ($3.50 per transaction) so they can monitor the profit or loss for each project. In this case, to include project tracking, the monthly cost would increase to around $530 per month.

Visit our pricing page to see what discounts you qualify for if you choose to bundle any of our tax, bookkeeping, or payroll services. Contact us today if you would like to know more about the specific criteria and services we offer in our bookkeeping services!