Questions People Have
Actually Asked Us

What is an Enrolled Agent, and how is that different from a CPA?

An Enrolled Agent is licensed federally by the IRS rather than by a state board, and holds unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS in any state — examinations, appeals and collections included. The credential is earned by passing a three-part exam on tax law and maintained with continuing education every year.

The practical difference is scope. A CPA is trained across auditing, assurance and financial reporting; an Enrolled Agent specializes specifically in tax. We prepare, plan and represent. We do not perform financial statement audits, reviews or compilations — those are attest services reserved for CPAs, and if you need one we will tell you and help you find the right firm.

Do you only work with Montana businesses?

No. We are based in Missoula and we can work with clients in any state. An Enrolled Agent license is federal, not state-limited, and multi-state filing is routine work here. Everything runs through the secure client portal, so where you are located changes nothing about how we work together.

How much does it cost?

It depends on volume and complexity — how many accounts and transactions there are each month, how many entities and states are involved, and which services you need. We quote in writing after a short conversation, before any work starts, so you are never guessing at the number.

Ask for a quote and we will get back to you within one business day.

What happens after I reach out?

We start with a conversation about your business and what you actually need. If it is a fit, you get an invitation to the client portal, upload your documents and grant any access we need, and we get to work. You will know the scope and the price before anything begins.

My books are a mess and I am behind. Is that a problem?

No, and it is far more common than you would guess. Catch-up and cleanup work is a normal starting point, not something to apologize for. We will tell you honestly how far back the reconstruction needs to go and what it will take to get current, then keep it current from there.

What is the client portal?

It is where everything between us lives — documents, statements, questions and answers. We built and run it ourselves rather than renting a third-party service, which means your records are not sitting on another vendor’s platform.

You can upload from your phone or desktop, message us securely, and see the full index of what we hold for you, organized by year and category, whenever you need it.

Is it safe to send tax documents through the portal?

It is considerably safer than the alternative, which is why we do not accept sensitive documents by email at all. Files are encrypted in transit with TLS 1.3 and at rest with AES-256, two-factor authentication is required on every login, and we maintain a written information security plan under IRS Publication 4557. Email attachments have none of that.

More detail is in our security policy.

Can my spouse or business partner have their own portal access?

Yes. Each person gets their own login with their own two-factor authentication rather than sharing one set of credentials, which is both safer and clearer when we need to know who uploaded or approved something. Tell us who needs access and what they should be able to see.

Do I still have access to my documents after tax season ends?

Yes. The portal is not seasonal — your returns, statements and supporting documents stay in your account, organized by year, which matters more than people expect the moment a lender, a landlord or an insurer asks for three years of records.

There is also a Permanent folder for the documents that are not tied to any one tax year: business license, FEIN letter, formation paperwork and the like. They sit apart from the year-by-year filings so you are not digging through tax seasons to find the one thing somebody needs today.

Why can’t I download a document I uploaded myself?

Because downloading is switched off by default on every file, and that is deliberate. Until it is enabled, what appears in your portal is the document’s name and where it sits — not what is inside it. So if someone ever got into your account, the most they learn is that a 2025 W-2 exists. They do not get to read it, and they do not get to take it.

It is your file, so this is not a hurdle: ask, and we turn downloading on for it. What we will not do is leave every document you have ever sent us downloadable around the clock on the chance that you might want one.

Do you work with non-profits?

Yes. Small non-profits are a natural fit for how we work, because the accounting problem is rarely volume — it is keeping restricted and designated funds tracked to their purpose instead of pooled into one balance, and producing statements a board can actually read.

We handle the monthly bookkeeping, the payroll, and the annual Form 990 — including the 990-EZ and 990-N versions most small organizations file — so a volunteer treasurer is not carrying the reporting alone.

Do you do church bookkeeping?

Yes, and it is genuinely its own discipline. Church bookkeeping runs on fund accounting: money given for a building fund, a mission trip or benevolence has to stay tracked to that purpose. Contributions need substantiation letters donors can rely on. Clergy compensation carries its own treatment, including the housing allowance and a minister’s dual status for payroll tax.

Most churches are not required to file a Form 990, which makes clean internal books the main thing standing between the congregation and a question nobody can answer.

Do you actually run payroll, or just file the payroll taxes?

Both. We run the payroll itself and handle the filings that follow it — quarterly payroll tax returns, W-2 and W-3, 1099 and 1096, across multiple states where needed. Payroll is the area where small errors compound quietly and surface later as penalty notices, so it is worth having the filings handled by whoever ran the numbers.

Do I have to use QuickBooks, or switch software?

QuickBooks Online is what we know best and what we will usually recommend, but we are not going to force a migration for its own sake. If your current system is working and your records are clean, that counts for a great deal. If we do think a change is worth it, we will explain why in terms of what it costs you to stay put.

Do you do bitcoin taxes?

Yes. The IRS treats bitcoin and other digital assets as property rather than currency, so more events are taxable than most holders expect. Selling for dollars is the obvious one — but trading one coin for another, spending crypto on a purchase, and receiving staking, mining or airdrop rewards are all reportable too, and rewards land as ordinary income rather than capital gain.

We reconcile activity across exchanges and wallets, sort out basis for coins moved between them, and report it correctly. If earlier years went unreported, amended returns are routine work here, not a crisis.

I sold stock or a rental property this year. How does capital gains tax work?

What you owe depends on how long you held the asset and what the rest of your year looked like. Held longer than a year, the gain is taxed at long-term rates; held less, it is taxed as ordinary income. Losses elsewhere in the same year offset it, and unused losses carry forward.

If the sale has already closed, we file the Schedule D and Form 8949 detail that belongs with it. If it has not closed yet, come talk to us first, because that is when the number is still changeable.

Do you work with startups?

Yes, and the early questions are the expensive ones to get wrong. Which entity to form, and when a C-Corp genuinely beats an LLC. How to deduct startup and organizational costs instead of losing them. Whether your development work supports an R&D credit.

If an exit is anywhere in view, qualified small business stock under Section 1202 can change what the founders keep, and eligibility depends on choices made at incorporation. More on startup company tax.

I got a letter from the IRS. Can you help?

Yes, and you do not have to answer it yourself. Most notices are routine and fixable, and nearly all of them read far more alarming than they are. As an Enrolled Agent we hold unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS, so we can read the notice, tell you what it actually says, and respond on your behalf — including in examinations, appeals and collections.

Send it to us before the response deadline rather than after.

Can you file prior-year or amended returns?

Yes. Unfiled years and returns that need correcting are ordinary work, not a special case. Filing late is almost always better than not filing, because penalties for failing to file run considerably steeper than penalties for failing to pay.

If a prior preparer missed something that was in your favor, an amended return can recover it — within the refund window, which is generally three years from the original filing.

Should my LLC elect S-Corp status?

Sometimes, and the honest answer is that it depends on numbers we have not seen yet. An S-Corp election saves some owners real money in self-employment tax and costs others more in payroll administration than it returns. It turns on your profit, the reasonable salary you would have to pay yourself, and how much complexity you want to carry.

We will show you the math for your business rather than repeat a rule of thumb, and we will tell you when the answer is no.

Do you perform audits or financial statement reviews?

No. We are a tax practice, not an audit firm. We do not perform financial statement audits, reviews or compilations, and we do not issue assurance opinions — those are attest services reserved for CPAs. If a lender, an investor or a grantmaker requires one, we will say so plainly and help you find a firm that does them.