CPA for LLC Plain answers before a fee.
A fall Saturday at the counter can feel like pure joy. Owners know that walk, as a child or with one. The hour is the fun. The booth still owes the bank a deposit that matches the cups.
Can the month still be open?
Yes. An open month means we close it before we answer a forward question. Ask that question while a month is still open and what we owe you is the admission that we would be guessing. Owners feel embarrassed about this. The embarrassment is optional. The close is not.
An open month is usually a stack, not a single blank. A vendor paid from the wrong card. A draw that never got a name. Sales tax collected and left inside the profit because nobody split it out. We take them in the order the bank can prove. A fall Saturday at the counter is a fair picture of the feeling. The visit is joy. The booth still has a deposit to match on Monday, and the joy does not do that matching.
Who runs payday?
Payday runs through a provider you already chose and kept. We set the file up, including the registrations and the wage we agreed is reasonable when the tax life needs a wage. Once the file is built, the provider you kept is the one who runs payday. We stay out of that run, and we do not talk about setup as if the run were ours.
Setup means the registrations, the provider, the wage we wrote down, and the map from that file into the books. It does not mean we calculate a Friday, press send, or hold the tax deposits. If a company has no employees and no letter that calls for a wage, we will say the file is a cost you do not need. That no saves a year of forms.
Who prepares the return?
Closing the months and preparing the return can stay in one practice. You can leave that choice until April is no longer open. The return has to follow the letter. With no letter, the return follows the default life, and we name that life before any preparation starts.
One owner and no letter usually means the activity rides on that owner's own return. Two or more owners and no letter usually means a partnership return. An S letter means the company return and a page for each owner. A C corporation is the other life, and it pays at the company. We name the life out loud before the return starts, so nobody is surprised by the form.
What if a lender wants a signed report?
That request is refused in the opening conversation and sent to a firm that can sign. Examined statements, a review, and a compilation are three products we will not sign. Your monthly statements can still be useful to you and to a lender as management reports. A lender who named a signature cannot treat our pages as that signature.
A lender can still read a management report that ties to the bank. What the lender cannot treat it as is the signature a form asked for by name. We will not relabel a management report to look like that signature. The disclosures page is where that limit is written, and the first call is where we repeat it if your packet asks.
Does one owner skip a federal return?
No. A single-owner company with no election usually puts the activity on that owner's Form 1040, and the company still needs a year that ties. The profit may already be on the personal return. The books are still the company's. A sole proprietorship with no company is the case with no certificate, and a company is not that.
An S letter or a C corporation letter gives the company its own federal form even when the owner thinks the personal return already covered it. Sitting on the personal form does not erase an entity return the letter created. A partnership return is the ordinary form when two people own the company and no letter says otherwise. Those shapes are read from the instructions for the form you are actually on. No sentence here tells you a tax bill.
Will you tell me if I do not need you?
Yes. A company with three clean months and a letter that matches the return may only need a return preparer once a year. Saying the books are already in good hands beats selling a monthly close you will hate by June. A finished conversation may be a no, and that finish is allowed.
The no is specific. If the months are clean and the letter matches, a monthly close is optional. If the months are open, the no runs the other way. A return waits until the bank and the file agree. Either answer is useful. Neither one is a pitch.
Questions that need your bank balance, your wage, or your basis do not get a number on this page. Those belong on the call, after we have seen the month. What belongs here is the order. Close what is open. Name the letter. Set payroll up only when the life calls for a wage. Prepare the return from that file. File the federal return the letter actually requires.