INVESTORS
SERVICES: TAX PREPARATION: COSTS

"Investors" don't qualify for trader tax status benefits, whereas "Business Traders" do. Investors, please sign up in this section, and business traders, please sign up here.

Fees are based on time charges. Click here.
Why we don’t use fixed fees. Click here.
Expenses are minimal. Click here.
Fee Quotes – how much can you expect to pay? Click here.
Our retainer payment and engagement letter. Click here.
Invoices - interim and final are payable before delivery. Click here.
Refund policy. Click here.

Fees are based on time charges.

We charge clients for our services based on our actual “billable time” spent on their jobs. Billable time includes all preparation work, consultations, research, phone calls, emails and a review of the tax preparer’s work by another CPA (all work must be reviewed by another CPA in our firm). Consulting time includes time with the client directly as well as between our professionals within the firm.

Other CPA firms will probably need to spend countless hours researching trader tax laws and many will charge traders for that time. You save that cost with our firm. We know this for a fact, since many CPA firms buy our trader tax guides and book and also engage our firm for consultations. With our firm, you can expect to receive excellent tax return results for as little time spent as possible. That’s because our professionals are highly productive, knowledgeable and experienced in the trader tax laws. Our firm works on tax matters and prepares tax returns for thousands of traders every year all around the country (since 1983) so we already have this process down to a science of efficiency and effectiveness. You are not paying for any wasted or unnecessary time and all our time is invested in your file to produce the results you need. Our entire focus is excellent results for a fair and low fee.

We assign different standard hourly billing rates to each of our professionals based on their level of experience and value added. You may work with several CPAs and professionals with different hourly billing rates. Your invoice lists each professionals name, their total time spent, their billing rate and total fee. Our standard hourly billing rates are priced for the national market place. We could charge much higher rates for many of our professionals, but we don’t. Our clients expect and receive from us low pricing over the Internet.

Why we don’t use fixed fees.

Every taxpayer is different and one size (price) doesn't fit all when it comes to tax planning and preparation. Some lower-end market firms (national chains and outsourcing solutions) use fixed fees or fixed pricing based on forms or schedules filled out, but that type of pricing usually does traders a great disservice.

Remember the old saying, ‘you get what you pay for.’ Do you really think you will get a proper job if a firm offers a fixed price for a Schedule D (Capital Gains and Losses) report and a trader comes into their office with thousands of complex trades? Firms offering these types of deals usually hire non-CPAs who are insufficiently trained in taxes, let alone trader taxes. You may save a few hundred dollars in preparation fees but don’t be surprised to get a bill for thousands from the IRS, and/or an IRS exam, or be stuck with huge non-deductible losses. Plus these firms report their preparation expenses on Schedule A along with most of a traders expenses. That costs you thousands more in taxes. Most of our traders qualify as business traders and they get full business tax deductions (including our fees) on Schedule C.

If we used a fixed fee, some clients would pay more then they should and others would pay less. That's not fair to many clients or us. That's why almost all credible CPA and attorney professionals charge for their services based on time spent. It's against CPA ethical standards to charge for our services based on tax savings – too bad because in our case we would make a fortune if we could, since we deliver tax fortunes to many traders.

So our time based fees are the most fair and honest and in both our best interests. If you have lots of questions, complex tax matters, and/or just need lots of tax help, expect to pay more than other clients who are super well organized and have simple tax matters. But don't worry when it comes to refunds and tax savings, whether you have a complex or simple tax file, we usually can deliver the maximum tax savings possible. And we know better than almost every other firm how to legally save every dollar possible for traders – a highly specialized niche market.

In the high-end of the CPA firm market, we compete against the big-four CPA firms, but our fees are far less. Some big firms have hidden minimum fee thresholds of several thousands of dollars. Plus we think we do a better job because their preparers are often part-timers and not experienced with trader tax law.

Bottom line, we are a great deal for most traders. Keep your eye on the big picture; your tax savings, peace-of-mind, after-tax-cost of our fees, and time, energy and aggravation you save by working with our dedicated professionals.

Expenses are minimal.

The expenses for our trader files are nominal – usually between $50 and $75. They include a tax return software process or license fee and usually a courier charge for delivery of your tax return to you. We don't charge for phone calls or other expenses that other firms often charge you for.

Quotes – how much can you expect to pay?

Simple and organized: If you are very organized with your tax records, have a standard investor tax file with proper trade accounting (on one or two trading accounts only), then you can expect our fees to be around $750 to $1,050.

Complex and organized: If you are organized with your tax records, have more complex investor tax files with questions on your trade accounting (for multiple accounts), then you can expect our fees to be around $1,050 to $1,450.

Complex and unorganized: If you are not well organized with your tax records, and/or have a more complex investor tax file and need our firm to figure out your trade accounting (for multiple accounts) with either our software or formulas (worksheets), then you can expect our fees to be around $1,450 to $1,750.

Complex or unorganized and lots of tax matters: Certain clients have challenging tax files and they require much more time on our part. They may be high net worth VIP clients with lots of tax matters and transactions requiring our attention and planning throughout the year. They may need us to figure out all their trade accounting on several trading and investment accounts. They may use complex entities. They may have IRS notices and follow up exam matters. They may need us to consult with our tax attorneys. They may have complex matters with their retirement plans. They may have complex questions with investment funds, trading treatment, international aspects and otherwise. These clients may pay us between $1,000 and $3,000 per year. We have some VIP traders paying us over $5,000 per year and they are happy to pay us to save them many times more in taxes.

Note the above quotes are based on each individual or entity tax return. If we prepare both an individual and entity return, then it may be less than the above quote times two, since the trader tax matters may all be on the entity return.

If we prepare your children’s tax returns, they usually cost far less per return, since most are fairly simple.

Investors are welcome to email us with a description of their tax file and we will give you a custom quote. That process is not always accurate because we find that many investors may under state their needs in the quote process and we discover they need more help when we dig into their files during the preparation process.

We also don’t communicate all our time during the process, as we are focused on getting the job done on time and right. If a trader asks many questions, submits new issues and sees we need more information or work, then it should not be a surprise that our bill will increase accordingly.

Our retainer payment and engagement letter.

As is customary for CPA firms, we require a retainer payment when you sign up for our tax preparation services. Your retainer payment is like a deposit or prepayment that we apply against your time-based invoice(s); it's not an extra charge of any kind. Our retainer also represents our minimum price. The retainer payment is necessary since we are going to start our work on your file and begin incurring costs with your assigned professionals from day one.

After we receive your actual tax file and determine the exact work to be done, we will prepare and email to you an engagement letter, which is another customary practice for CPA firms. Our engagement letter spells out the scope of our engagement, the exact work to be done, our retainer, refund and pricing terms and conditions (as explained on this Web page) and our limited responsibilities as "tax preparers" (we are not auditing your tax file). Both you and your assigned CPA need to sign this engagement letter before we proceed further with your job.

Invoices - interim and final are payable before delivery

On the completion of your work (tax return preparation), we present you with a summary of our results (tax refunds and/or tax payments due) together with our invoice for fees and expenses (which were reduced by your retainer and other on account payments made to date).

We require payment of our invoice (by secure credit card) before we deliver your actual work completed (tax returns). Clients have purchase protection from their credit card companies and they have the right to reverse charges if they don't receive what they were promised (delivery). If we were to deliver work before invoice payment, we would have to chase many clients for payment and incur many costs in this regard. Avoiding these costs and possible bad debts, helps us keep our fees lower, and that benefits our clients. Think of our firm like a doctors' office, restaurant or retail store; you pay for your goods and/or services on receipt; not later on when you get around to paying your bills by mail. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding on this matter.

When appropriate, we send clients interim invoices before our final work is complete. All clients pay the same retainer, but some clients have much bigger jobs. So expect interim invoices as our work progresses if your total fees run over $1,000 (the quote amount for complex and organized above). Interim invoices are due on receipt and your work may be put on hold until payment is made. Again, thanks for your understanding and cooperation. We do this to avoid problem situations, communicate our costs and keep your file on good track. You don't like invoice surprises and we don't like problem situations. Remember, we earned our leadership position in the trader tax market by doing exactly what we say we will do and we keep our promises. Thanks.

Refund policy.

The engagement letter also specifies our refund policy, terms and conditions. If you ask us to stop work on your file, you are responsible to pay for all our time and expenses incurred until that termination date. If the charges are higher than your retainer, you are required to pay the excess charges. If the charges are less than your retainer, we will refund your unused retainer portion.

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@greencompany.com or call us.

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