Most people who hire a CPA to prepare their tax return have already tried doing it themselves with software, or have used a chain preparer, or have a CPA they’re not particularly happy with. The reasons clients move to me are usually some version of: the situation got too complicated for software to handle without producing wrong answers; an audit or notice arrived and they realized the return that triggered it wasn’t done as carefully as they assumed; or they want a preparer who’s actually thinking about the return rather than running it through a checklist.
I’m Lawrence Israeloff. I’m a tax attorney and a CPA, and I’ve been preparing returns for clients across Long Island and the New York City metro for over two decades. The returns I prepare aren’t the simplest ones – clients with W-2 income and standard deductions are usually fine with software. The returns that justify professional preparation are the ones where the right answer isn’t obvious from the documents.
Software does a competent job of arithmetic. What it doesn’t do well, and what generic preparers often miss, is judgment about how to report things. A few patterns I see when reviewing returns that were prepared elsewhere:
The deliverable isn’t just the return. It’s the work that produces a return I’d be willing to defend to the IRS or NY DTF if asked. Concretely, that includes:
The categories that make up most of the practice: individual returns (Form 1040) for high-income clients with multi-source income, equity compensation, investment activity, real estate, multi-state issues, or self-employment; pass-through entity returns (Form 1065 partnerships, Form 1120S S-corps) for closely-held operating businesses, professional practices, and real estate entities; corporate returns (Form 1120) for C-corps, including those with multi-state nexus or international issues; fiduciary returns (Form 1041) for trusts and estates, including grantor trust filings, complex non-grantor trusts, charitable remainder trusts, and estate income tax during administration; and gift tax returns (Form 709) when lifetime gifting strategies require reporting.
Less common but in scope when needed: estate tax returns (Form 706) for taxable estates, foreign account reporting (FBAR/FinCEN 114, Form 8938), and amended returns when prior-year errors need to be corrected.
Return preparation is the visible part of compliance, but it’s not the whole job. The supporting work happens throughout the year:
The recurring patterns: high-income individuals and couples whose returns are too complex for software but who don’t want a chain preparer; closely-held business owners who need both the entity return and their personal return prepared by someone who sees the whole picture; professional practices, real estate investors, and other clients with K-1 income from multiple sources; trustees and executors handling fiduciary returns during the administration of trusts and estates; and clients who’ve received an IRS or NY DTF notice and need a preparer who can both fix the return and respond to the inquiry.
If your situation is W-2 income, standard deduction, no investments to speak of, and no business interests – software is genuinely fine, and I’ll tell you that.
I work out of Melville, NY and prepare returns for clients across Long Island, the five boroughs, Westchester, and the broader New York metro, plus clients who’ve relocated out of state but maintain NY filing obligations. New York’s tax structure (the state’s residency rules, NYC’s separate income tax for residents, the state’s pass-through entity tax election, the various local taxes and surcharges) adds genuine complexity that out-of-state preparers often handle poorly.
If you’re rethinking your current preparation arrangement, dealing with a return that’s gotten too complicated for the tool you’ve been using, or facing an issue that surfaced after a return was filed, that’s typically when this conversation makes sense. Schedule a consultation and we’ll talk through what you have and where the gaps are.
