Services
POLARIS TAX & ACCOUNTING
A DIFFERENT ACCOUNTING FIRM
Business Services
When it comes to paying employees, laws and the IRS have made the payroll function a time-consuming nightmare for small business owner.
Small business owners spend an average of eight hours a month performing payroll functions. That’s 12 full days a year that could be spent generating sales, prospecting for new business opportunities, improving products or services, or servicing customers.
We offer payroll solutions that meet your business’s needs and enable you to spend time doing what you do best–running your company.
Why Outsource Your Payroll…
- It’s Cost Effective
Use your staff more efficiently by letting us handle payroll and the associated legal details. Reduce overhead by removing the need to hire specialized employees. - It’s a Time Saver
Our payroll service eliminates the burden of customizing, updating, and maintaining your own payroll system–no more data entry, no more researching updates or new laws, no more worries. - Worry-Free Payroll Tax Filing
Eliminate the risks of calculating and filing your own payroll taxes by having professionals do it for you. Federal, state, and local payroll tax laws are frequently changing and becoming more complex. How much time do you want to spend learning all the rules and keeping your information up to date? - Allows You To Focus On Core Competencies
Our professional staff allows you to focus on the core competencies of your business. We are accounting professionals–you get the experts working for you and with you. - Comprehensive Reports
You get a wide variety of user-friendly and accurate payroll reports. For a nominal fee, we will include union reports, certified payroll, workers’ compensation reports, and much more.
Get the Payroll Solution That Best Fits Your Needs.
We know that when it comes to payroll service – no one size fits all. Our firm will develop a custom payroll processing solution for your unique business needs.
Forensic Accounting
Forensic accounting – also called financial forensics or forensic auditing – is an area of accounting that investigates actual or anticipated disputes.
Disputes can range from business-related litigation to marital dissolution. We handle both litigation support and investigative accounting.
Litigation Support
This area covers accounting assistance for current or pending litigation.
For a litigation assignment, we…
- assist in obtaining the necessary documentation to support or refute a claim;
- examine the relevant documentation to form an assessment of the case;
- review the damages report by the opposing expert;
- assist with settlement discussions and negotiations; and
- attend the trial to hear the testimony of the opposing expert and provide assistance with cross-examination.
Investigative Accounting
Occasionally, you may need to explore whether fraud or misconduct has occurred, such as employee theft of property or inventory, misappropriation of funds by employees, kickbacks to employees from outside businesses, securities fraud, and insurance fraud.
With our investigative accounting services, we bring to bear our accounting knowledge and experience in the field to give you a clear understanding of the situation. When you retain our expertise, we skillfully…
- review the situation and offer suggestions for possible courses of action;
- assist with the protection and recovery of assets;
- coordinate with other experts, including private investigators, forensic document examiners, and consulting engineers; and
- assist with any necessary civil action or criminal prosecution.
Forensic Investigations Take a Variety of Forms
The services of a forensic accountant are required for a range of investigations across many different industries. Here are the most common assignments in forensic accounting:
Disputes Among Shareholders or Partners. The compensation and benefits given to each of the shareholders or partners are one of the more common issues in these cases.
Personal Injury Claims / Motor Vehicle Accidents. When economic losses from a personal injury or vehicular accident are in question, a forensic accountant is brought in.
Insurance Claims. Because insurance policies vary greatly in terms and conditions, such engagements require a thorough policy review to determine the appropriate method of figuring out the loss. A forensic accountant can assist from either the insured or the insurer’s standpoint.
Business/Employee Fraud Investigations. The investigation of employee fraud often requires a determination of the extent of the fraud. It may or may not include the identification of a perpetrator. Many times, such assignments necessitate interviews of staff who had access to the funds.
Matrimonial Disputes. Usually, when a dispute of this nature arises, forensic accountants must locate and evaluate the disputed assets, whether these assets are related to a business, property, or fiduciary.
Business Economic Losses. These kinds of engagements include contract disputes, construction claims, expropriations, product liability claims, trademark and patent infringements, and losses stemming from an alleged breach of a non-compete agreement.
Cash Flow Management
Everything is better when your cash-in exceeds your cash-out. A cash crisis can be emotionally devastating, and it can even jeperdize your business.
Our cash management service allows you to…
- Know when, where, and how your cash needs will occur.
- Know what the best sources are for meeting your additional cash needs.
- Be prepared to meet these needs when they occur by keeping good relationships with bankers and other creditors.
The starting point for avoiding a cash crisis is allowing us to develop a cash flow projection for you. We can help you develop both short-term (weekly, monthly) cash flow projections to help you manage daily cash requirements and long-term (annual, 3-5 year) cash flow projections to help you develop the necessary capital strategy to meet your business needs.
Bank Financing
Need funding to grow your business? Requesting a business loan without adequate preparation sends a clear message to the lender: High Risk! Therefore, it pays to be prepared and organized in your approach to financing.
Put your best foot forward by allowing us to prepare a winning loan proposal for you. Our proposals have a high likelihood of success because they’re created from the lender’s perspective.
You get the money you need because we know exactly what banks want to see. Even more importantly, we know how to prove to them that you’ll be able to pay them back.
Our winning loan proposals come complete with…
- Executive Summary: Where we concisely state the purpose of the loan, the exact amount of money required, and an explanation of what the loan will be used for and why it’s needed.
- Pro-forma Cash Budgets and Financial Statements: We use your data and underlying assumptions to prepare information that your banker can easily read and buy into.
- Owners Personal Financial Statements: We make copies of the last 3 years of personal tax returns for the bank as well as identify the collateral being pledged as security for the loan.
- Representation: We help substantiate your financial needs/position to your banker in person.
Strategic Business Planning
A Strategic Business Plan is much more than a tool to obtain financing. If you still have all your plans and ideas locked up inside your head, preparing a strategic plan can help you clarify your company’s direction. It can ensure that your key leaders are all on the same page and keeps both management and staff focused on the tasks at hand.
A Strategic Plan is often needed when…
- Starting a new venture, product, or service
- Expanding a current organization, product, or service
- Buying a new business, product, or service
- Turning around a declining business
The Strategic Plan provides a blueprint describing your company, its products, the competitive environment, management team, financial health, and business risks.
The plan allows you to…
- Identify and describe the target customer profile, features, advantages, and benefits of your new venture, product, or service.
- Justify that your plans are credible by fully researching the need being filled with your new venture.
- Develop marketing plans, including full descriptions of targeted promotional campaigns with implementation timelines.
- Develop staffing plans, including identifying the key players, skills, attitudes, and expertise needed to build the venture.
- Develop management plans including full descriptions of management systems and timelines for implementation.
- Develop financial plans, including projected startup costs, operating costs, revenue, profits, and break-even analysis for the first 3 to 5 years.
Projected financial plans allow you to effectively predict upcoming problems or prevent them. In other words, the perspective gained through your Strategic Business Plan can make a significant contribution to your company’s success and help you get the funding you require. In fact, most lending institutions and private investors will require you to provide a solid financial plan.
Succession Planning
If you own a family business, retirement isn’t simply a matter of deciding not to go into the office anymore. You’ve got some critical questions to answer, like…
“What happens to the business when you’re no longer running it?” and
“Will you have enough money to retire?”
The family dynamic complicates the whole transition because of the relationships and emotions involved. Most people are not comfortable discussing topics such as aging, death, and financial affairs.
Developing and implementing a well-designed succession plan is essential to the survival of a family business from one generation to the next.
We help you with these key issues –
- Keeping it in the family. Are you going to pass the business on to your family or sell it to a third party? We help you weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each of these options.
- Who’s going to run the business when you’re gone? Management and ownership are not one and the same. You may decide to transfer management of your business to just one of your children but transfer equal shares of business ownership to all your children, whether they’re actively involved in the business or not.
- Minimizing tax implications. The tax burden when transitioning a family business can be significant. The challenge is that a family business is not generally a liquid asset, but taxes are typically due when ownership is transferred.
- Making it fair. Transferring family ownership often adds a tremendous amount of stress to individual family members. We review your individual goals and family goals to craft a succession plan that aligns with these goals.
What we do for you…
We help you develop a succession plan focusing on these 5 issues…
- Business Valuation
- Business Restructuring
- Tax Consequences
- Retirement Projections
- Tax Projections
New Business Formation
Thinking of owning your own business?
A methodical plan of action is needed to fulfill your dream or goal of being your own boss and running a successful business. Success lies in the approach you choose to take. We help you avoid the common pitfalls that many new small business owners make when starting their new venture.
We help you…
- Prepare an initial business plan to clarify your marketing, management, and financial plans.
- Determine your start-up capital needs.
- Identify sources of start-up capital and backup sources if needed.
- Evaluate and quantify your borrowing power so you know how much money you can get your hands on if needed.
- Select a business structure that best fits your needs by evaluating tax advantages, legal exposure, ease of operation, and portability should you need to relocate.
- Select the right accounting software by evaluating your budget, needs, and hardware.
- Prepare a Cash Flow Budget, so you know exactly how much money you need to keep the business alive each month for the first few years. Unplanned cash requirements are always emotionally painful.
- Establish billing and collection procedures to maximize your cash flow.
- Establish procedures to monitor and control costs.
- Set up a home office so you can maximize your tax deductions.
- Prepare and file all required state and local licenses and permits.
- Prepare and file your application for your Federal Employer Identification Number.
- Provide payroll and payroll tax filing when you bring on your first employee.
- Comply with employment laws, so you don’t get hit with fines and unhappy employees.
- Identify your business insurance needs.
- Develop a solid Operating Agreement.
Non-Profit Organizations
We can help you set up and maintain your non-profit organization’s tax-exempt status by handling all the IRS reporting for you. Each year the IRS requires most tax-exempt organizations to submit Form 990 and its relations, which includes the following items.
- Income Statement with very specific revenue and expense categories like donations, salaries, postage, rent…
- Balance Sheet with specific categories like cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable…
- Functional Expense Statement with all the expenses allocated to either program services, fundraising, or operations.
- Individual Program Expense Statement that reports all of the expenses for each program or service like seminar programs or educational mailings.
- Revenue Support Schedules that detail the organization’s sources of income in specific categories like charitable donations, membership fees, and investment income.
The IRS uses these very specific Revenue Supporting Schedules to determine if your organization will retain its tax-exempt status. So it’s imperative that you build your accounting system around these revenue and expense classifications.
Here’s what we do for you…
- Review and compile your financial statements
- Design, install, and maintain your Accounting System
- Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payroll preparation
- Payroll Tax Preparation and Deposits
- Provide training for your accounting personnel
- Complete and file your non-profit status application
- Provide training for your board on non-profit financial statement usage and effective budgeting practices
- Prepare and file the 990 and 990T tax forms
- Prepare your initial start-up documentation, including incorporation, federal employee identification number (FEIN), and payroll setup with federal and state agencies.
- For Churches: we prepare the pastoral housing allowance and other required benefit documentation to meet the complex dual status of ministers.
If you’re starting a new not-for-profit organization, we can help you prepare your organization’s 501 (c)(3) application for tax-exempt status.
Here’s what’s needed…
- Articles of Incorporation containing the Exempt Purpose Statement as described in IRS Code section 501(c)(3) and defined in Treasury Regulation 1.501(c)(3)-1 Paragraph d and the Dissolution Statement described in Treasury Regulation 1.501(c)(3)-1 Paragraph b subparagraph 4 (“Organizational Test”).
- Employer Identification Number
- By-laws of the Organization
- Minutes of Board Meetings
- Names, Addresses, and Resumes of Board Members
- Names and addresses of all Active Members
- Inventory of Assets like cash, furniture, equipment, property, pledges…
- Inventory of Liabilities like mortgages, accounts payable, loans…
- Rent/Lease Agreements and Contracts
- Revenue and Expense Statement for the last four years or as far back as possible if your organization has been in existence for less than four years.
- Written Reason for Formation and History of the organization.
- Organization Mission Statement or Statement of Faith or Beliefs for Churches and other Religious Organizations.
- Organization Activities, Operations, and Programs Documentation, including your statement of purpose & operations, food programs, fundraisers, flyers/brochures/pamphlets…
- Financial Support Documentation including all sources of revenue like contributions, tithes, offerings, fundraisers…
- Fund Raising Program Descriptions
- IRS Processing/Filing Fee
We are happy to prepare any of these items if you need help.
Internal Controls
At times you may need a trained outside professional to evaluate your company’s operations to determine if the appropriate controls are in place to ensure proper handling of resources and to protect yourself from employee theft.
We assess your internal control systems to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of your operating procedures. Then we make recommendations that help your company become stronger and more profitable by correcting any inefficient or ineffective operating procedures we find.
What we do for you…
- Implement segregation of duties so that duties are divided or segregated among different people to reduce the risk of error or inappropriate actions. No one person has control over all aspects of any financial transaction.
- Make sure transactions are authorized by a person delegated approval authority when the transactions are consistent with policy and funds are available.
- Ensure records are routinely reviewed and reconciled by someone other than the preparer or transactor to determine that transactions have been properly processed.
- Make certain that equipment, inventories, cash, and other property are secured physically, counted periodically, and compared with item descriptions shown on control records.
- Provide employees with appropriate training and guidance to ensure they have the knowledge necessary to carry out their job duties, are provided with an appropriate level of direction and supervision, and are aware of the proper channels for reporting suspected improprieties.
- Document policies and procedures and make them accessible to employees. The documented policies and procedures provide day-to-day guidance to your staff and the continuation of duties in the event of prolonged employee absences or turnover.
- Review operations to ascertain whether results are consistent with established objectives and goals and whether the operations are being carried out as planned.
If you’d like more information about our internal control services, please schedule a free consultation.
Condos
What we do for you…
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Collect all assessments due to the Association and deposit monies in Association accounts.
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Download and input the lockbox electronic payment date.
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Send collection letters to all delinquent accounts and post late fees.
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Prepare and submit delinquent accounts to the Association attorney.
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Monitor and supervise the progress of lien and foreclosure attorney action.
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Receive, review and submit for payment all invoices, utilities, and contractual services.
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Prepare checks (with supporting data) for the Association officer’s signature.
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Prepare monthly financial reports, including the general ledger, unit ledger balance, check register, and budget, showing actual versus budgeted amounts and year-to-date income and expenses.
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Maintain the integrity of financial records for the Association’s year-end audit.
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Assist with the preparation of the annual budget for Association review, adjustments, and approval.
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Assist in filing the Corporate Annual Report with the Florida Division of Corporation.
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Prepare the Association tax return.
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Complete Estoppel and condo questionnaire (additional fee for service).
- Email Board of Directors reports for meetings as required.
Tax Services
Tax Preparation
While the list below is not a complete listing, we usually prepare and file the following Returns for our clients:
- Individual Tax Returns
- S-Corporation Returns
- Partnership Tax Returns
- C-Corporation Returns
- Small Business Returns
- Rental Investments
- Foreign Income Reporting
Certified Acceptance Agent Services
A Certified Acceptance Agent is a person or an entity (business or organization) who, pursuant to a written agreement with the IRS, is authorized to assist individuals and other foreign persons who do not qualify for a Social Security Number but who still need a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to process a Form 1040 and other tax schedules. The Acceptance Agent facilitates the application process by reviewing the necessary documents and forwarding the completed forms to IRS.
Tax Planning
Planning is the key to successfully and legally reducing your tax liability. We go beyond tax compliance and proactively recommend tax-saving strategies to maximize your after-tax income.
We make it a priority to enhance our mastery of the current tax law, complex tax code, and new tax regulations by attending frequent tax seminars.
Businesses and individuals pay the lowest amount of taxes allowable by law because we continually look for ways to minimize your taxes throughout the year, not just at the end of the year.
We recommend Tax Saving Strategies that help you…
- Grow and preserve assets by keeping more of what you earned.
- Defer income so you can keep your money now and pay fewer taxes later.
- Reduce taxes on your income.
- Reduce taxes on your estate.
- Reduce taxes on your gifts so you can give more.
- Reduce taxes on your investments so you can grow your wealth faster.
- Reduce taxes on your retirement distributions so you can retire in style.
Tax Problems
Are you having problems with the IRS?
We’re here to help you resolve your tax problems and put an end to the misery that the IRS can put you through. We pride ourselves on being very efficient, affordable, and of course, extremely discreet. The IRS problems will not just go away by themselves; they just keep getting worse with penalties and interest being added each day.
If you owe the IRS, you have a very serious problem. It may take the IRS several years to catch up to you, but they’re relentless and have no mercy in collecting all the money that is owed. When the collection process starts, they’ll make your life miserable and literally ruin all aspects of your life.
Please take a look through our complete IRS problem resolution services listed below.
IRS Audit Representation
Rarely do our clients have to talk with the IRS. We handle it all for you so that you need not take time off of your job to handle the bureaucracy and paperwork of the IRS.
Non-Filed Tax Returns
If you do not file, you can be prosecuted and punished with potential jail time, one year for each year not filed. Why risk potentially losing your freedom for failing to file your tax returns?
Back Taxes Owed
It’s amazing how fast tax penalties and interest add up. Luckily, we offer several options when it comes to resolving unpaid taxes. Complete this form to get a Free Consultation with our tax specialist.
Payroll Tax Problems
The IRS views failing to pay payroll taxes as the cardinal sin of tax delinquency because a large portion of the payroll taxes is your employees’ withholdings.
IRS Liens
Liens filed against you by the IRS also show up on your credit report and often prevent you from opening a checking account or borrowing against any assets, like your home.
IRS Levies
We are often able to get levies released and help you get out of a terrible situation. Our goal is to get you even with the IRS and let you start life anew.
IRS Wage Garnishment
The payment plan negotiated by us is always more favorable than any IRS wage garnishment. It allows you to receive your whole paycheck without fears of future wage garnishments.
IRS Seizures
A Seizure should not be taken lightly. The IRS will ultimately pursue seizure of your physical assets; your home, cars, boats, jewelry, motorcycles, insurance policies, and even your retirement funds.
IRS Payment Plan
If you don’t qualify for the IRS Offer In Compromise program, a Payment Plan may be the way to resolve your problem.
Offer In Compromise
Did you know that you can settle your debt with the IRS for just pennies on the dollar with their Offer in Compromise program?
Bankruptcy
Your back taxes, interest, and penalties can be wiped out by filing bankruptcy. If you qualify, bankruptcy can be the best solution to resolve your crushing tax problems.
Innocent Spouse Relief
Innocent Spouse Relief was designed to alleviate unjust situations where one spouse was clearly the victim of fraud perpetrated by their spouse or ex-spouse.
Get Your IRS File
Most people would be surprised to learn how much the IRS knows about them. Obtaining a copy of your IRS file is critical in analyzing the options available to resolve your tax problems.
