“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” — Albert Einstein
More Than Preparing a Tax Return
Taxes affect nearly every part of your financial life. They influence how much you save, where you invest, when you retire, how you give, and what ultimately passes to the people and organizations you care about.
Yet tax preparation and financial planning are often handled separately. Your tax professional may understand what happened last year, while your financial advisor is helping you make decisions about the years ahead. Without coordination, important opportunities can be missed.
Suttle Crossland offers tax preparation and advisory services in collaboration with Jalada, a specialized tax and accounting partner for financial advisory firms. This allows us to connect the information on your tax return with the financial decisions we help you make throughout the year.
The goal is not simply to file an accurate return. It is to create a more coordinated process in which your taxes, investments, retirement income, charitable giving, and broader financial plan work together.
Tax Services Built Around Your Financial Plan
Individual Tax Preparation
Preparation and filing of federal and applicable state individual income tax returns, supported by a secure and organized process.
Proactive Tax Planning
Planning around capital gains, tax-loss harvesting, concentrated stock, asset location, charitable gifts, and the tax consequences of portfolio changes.
Tax Projections
Estimates of your expected tax liability to help guide withholding, estimated payments, Roth conversions, investment decisions, and other planning opportunities.
Business Tax Preparation
Tax-return preparation for qualifying businesses and business owners, including certain sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, and other entities.
Retirement Tax Planning
Coordination of Social Security, required minimum distributions, Roth conversions, pensions, Medicare premiums, and portfolio withdrawals.
Tax Protection Plus™
Every return prepared through our tax service includes Tax Protection Plus™, providing additional support if you receive a qualifying IRS or state notice, audit, or inquiry after filing.
One Coordinated Financial Picture
A tax return contains valuable information about your income, investments, deductions, business interests, and financial decisions. When your tax return is disconnected from your financial plan, that information may only be used to report what has already happened.
Our integrated approach allows tax information to become part of the ongoing planning process.
For example, your tax return may help us identify opportunities involving:
- Roth conversions
- Capital-gain realization
- Tax-loss harvesting
- Charitable contributions
- Donor-advised funds
- Qualified charitable distributions
- Retirement-plan contributions
- Required minimum distributions
- Medicare income-related surcharges
- Estimated tax payments
- Equity compensation
- Business-owner retirement strategies
Not every strategy will be appropriate every year. The value comes from having the information available, reviewing it in context, and making thoughtful decisions before deadlines have passed.
Preparation Looks Back. Planning Looks Ahead
Tax preparation records what has already happened. It organizes your income, deductions, credits, and completed transactions so an accurate return can be filed.
Tax planning focuses on decisions that may still be influenced.
Before the end of the year, there may be opportunities to adjust retirement-plan contributions, complete a Roth conversion, manage capital gains, make charitable gifts, or update withholding and estimated payments. The right approach will depend on your income, goals, and broader financial circumstances.
An accurate return provides the foundation. Proactive planning uses that information to help you make more informed decisions before important deadlines have passed.
Designed to Reduce the Back-and-Forth
Coordinating between a financial advisor and a separate tax preparer can sometimes require you to serve as the messenger. Documents are sent to multiple places, questions are relayed between professionals, and important details may not reach the right person at the right time.
Our relationship with Jalada is designed to create a more organized experience.
Jalada provides specialized tax-preparation and accounting support, while Suttle Crossland remains involved in the broader planning relationship. Relevant information can be shared through a coordinated process, reducing unnecessary duplication and helping both teams understand the decisions being considered.
You will still review your return, answer questions, and approve the final filing. However, you should not have to independently manage every conversation between your financial and tax professionals.
Year-Round Guidance, Not Just Tax-Season Help
Tax planning does not begin in February and end in April.
Many of the most valuable planning opportunities occur throughout the year, especially when your circumstances change. A retirement, business sale, inheritance, large charitable gift, stock-option exercise, real-estate transaction, or significant portfolio gain can all create tax consequences that deserve advance attention.
Because tax planning is incorporated into the broader financial-planning process, we can revisit your situation when decisions are actually being made.
That may include reviewing tax projections during the year, coordinating estimated payments, evaluating income thresholds, or identifying actions that should be completed before December 31.
The result is a process that is more proactive, more organized, and better aligned with your life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our services may include preparation and filing of individual tax returns, qualifying business tax returns, bookkeeping, and related accounting support.
Tax-return preparation may include applicable federal and state returns, schedules, and forms required as part of the agreed-upon engagement.
Bookkeeping services may include transaction categorization, account reconciliation, general-ledger maintenance, periodic financial reporting, and cleanup of existing records.
The exact scope will depend on the complexity of your situation, the types of returns required, the condition of your records, and the services included in your engagement.
Jalada is a specialized tax and accounting firm that works with financial advisory practices to provide tax preparation, planning, and accounting support.
Suttle Crossland works with Jalada to deliver a more coordinated experience. Jalada’s tax professionals provide the technical preparation and review of applicable returns, while we help connect the tax work with your broader financial plan.
Jalada provides the tax and accounting infrastructure, secure systems, and technical support behind the service. This structure allows us to offer tax and accounting services without requiring clients to separately coordinate every exchange of information among their financial advisor, tax preparer, and bookkeeper.
Tax returns are prepared by Jalada‘s tax professionals through our coordinated service arrangement.
Suttle Crossland remains involved in the overall relationship and helps ensure that relevant planning information is communicated as part of the process. Depending on the question, you may interact with a member of our team, a tax professional from Jalada, or both.
Before beginning the engagement, we will explain the scope of the service, the responsibilities of each party, and how communication will be handled.
Tax services are designed primarily to complement our financial-planning and wealth-management relationships because the greatest value comes from coordinating tax decisions with the rest of your financial life.
Availability for households that are not ongoing advisory clients may depend on capacity, the complexity of the return, and the type of assistance requested.
We can review your situation and explain which service arrangement may be appropriate.
Bookkeeping services may include transaction categorization, bank and credit-card reconciliations, general-ledger maintenance, financial reporting, and cleanup of existing records.
The appropriate service will depend on the needs of the business. Some businesses may only need periodic cleanup or year-end support, while others may benefit from ongoing monthly bookkeeping.
We will review the existing records and discuss the desired level of support before confirming the engagement.
Tax preparation and tax planning are related, but they are not the same service.
Tax preparation focuses on accurately reporting completed transactions and filing the required returns. Tax planning involves evaluating future decisions and identifying opportunities before they become irreversible.
Depending on your engagement, planning may include tax projections, Roth-conversion analysis, capital-gain planning, charitable strategies, retirement-distribution planning, estimated-payment calculations, and coordination with your investment portfolio.
We will clearly explain what is included before work begins.
We expect to support tax preparation for certain business entities and business owners, subject to the nature and complexity of the return.
Business returns can vary considerably. A straightforward S corporation may require a different level of work than a business with multiple entities, multistate activity, complex bookkeeping, or specialized industry reporting.
We will review the return and related documents before confirming whether it falls within the scope of the service.
Every return prepared through our tax service includes Tax Protection Plus™.
If you receive a qualifying notice, audit, or inquiry related to the return, Tax Protection Plus™ can provide up to $1 million in tax audit defense services to help reach a resolution. Depending on the issue, its tax-resolution team may review the notice, prepare a response, communicate with the taxing authority, organize supporting documentation, and represent you before the IRS or state.
Tax Protection Plus™ resolution specialists hold an Enrolled Agent designation, CPA designation, or both. You will work with a designated case team throughout the resolution process.
Certain matters may not qualify for coverage, and all services are subject to the Tax Protection Plus™ program’s terms, conditions, eligibility requirements, and limitations.
Tax Protection Plus™ is a tax-resolution and identity-theft restoration service included with every tax return prepared through our service.
If you receive a qualifying IRS or state notice, audit, or inquiry, Tax Protection Plus™ provides access to professionals who can help review the issue, communicate with the taxing authority, and work toward a resolution.
Tax Protection Plus™ services are subject to its applicable terms, eligibility requirements, exclusions, and limitations
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