Prepare what happened. Plan for what has not happened yet.
Preparing your own return can be difficult with today’s complex tax code, and rules change from year to year. A return prepared by someone who knows your history is a different document than one prepared from scratch.
Individual and family returns
Most people and small businesses use a professional preparer, and for good reason. Even a simple return is affected by rule changes from one year to the next, and doing it alone often means overlooking deductions and credits. Van Grouw & Associates prepares individual returns, out-of-state returns, and the returns that follow a move, a marriage, a sale or an inheritance.
Business returns
The firm prepares business, partnership and corporate returns, gift and estate tax returns, and returns for fiduciaries and non-profit organizations. Where the firm also keeps the books, the return is built from records that have been current all year.
Year-round planning
Tax planning is how you legally reduce what you owe over time rather than discovering the result in April. The firm can suggest strategies to defer income where appropriate, address taxes on estates and gifts, and look at investments and retirement distributions in the context of your whole picture. Planning conversations include the commonly overlooked deductions to watch for in the year ahead.
Tax planning and education is offered to start-ups as well as established businesses. No firm can promise a particular outcome or minimize every tax bill — what it can do is make the decision-making informed and timely.
When a change deserves a conversation first
- Selling a home, a rental, or a business interest
- Starting a business or changing entity type
- Approaching retirement or beginning distributions
- An inheritance, a trust, or an estate filing
- A move into or out of New Jersey, or income in more than one state
- Estimated payments that no longer match the year’s income