Here are some quickie FAQs to learn more about WCG CPAs & Advisors, and how we do business-
Do you extend a lot of tax returns?
Nope. We have a t-shirt that reads, “Hate extensions. Love our summers.” We file 70% of our tax returns by April 15, and only extend per the client’s request or if there is missing data such as a rogue K-1. We’ll go as quickly as you let us! Also, we don’t have A listers… we prepare tax returns in first-in first-out sequence. Sure, we leave room for emergencies or other issues that allow for jumping the line.
How is Business Advisory different than Tax Patrol or Investor Patrol?
Good question! Our Business Advisory Service plans (Vail, Telluride and Aspen) are more advisory forward like a robust old-fashioned with lots of planning, tax strategies and business consultation to help you make decisions. Our Tax Patrol Services (Keystone, Copper and Breck) are more tax return preparation forward like a refreshing vodka-lemonade with less tax planning, or at least less-intensive planning and consultation.
Investor Patrol Services for our rental property owners and investors is somewhere in-between since real estate is a business like any other requiring more tax planning, strategy and consultation but falls short of needing shareholder payroll planning and processing.
How Often Do We Schedule Meetings?
Up to you! In the past, we would pro-actively schedule quarterly meetings with all Business Advisory, Investor Patrol and Tax Patrol clients, but it was cumbersome for everyone. Today, we generally connect at least 3 times a year in a meaningful way. Once for tax return preparation, once for tax planning and then another for a myriad of reasons (“hey, I am buying a car” or “hey, we sold a rental”). This is all back-filled with emailed correspondence and touch-ups throughout the year. Having said that, with routine consultation offered above, your goal is to extract everything you need from us.
We prefer scheduled meetings over Teams. Check out our CPA Concierge Service as well. Priority boarding. HOV lane. Early check-in.
What Is Your Communication Style?
We rely heavily on emails and text message alerts. However, we do not have an allergy to the telephone. During friendly hours (let’s say 8AM to 7PM including weekends) we will usually call first if we have a question or need clarification.
Having said that, email can be an effective communication tool, and it is especially good for questions that require thought and good for memorializing conversations. While email is a chore for most people it can also be a distraction. Your WCG team is no different.
As such, we have two big rules that you need to be aware of-
- The tax team, for example, only checks emails on Mondays and Thursdays. While there is no such thing as an accounting emergency, only poor planning, should you be needing a quicker response, then call us! We are committed to responding to your email within 3 business days.
- Next, if our response to your email inquiry will take more than 5-10 minutes to write, then we will default to either a) picking up the phone and calling you out of the blue or b) sending you a calendar link so we can discuss it. Email is horribly inefficient. Having said that, we leave room for the expat or the person who works challenging hours or the person in a secure military facility, and needs some love from their tax professional but can only do email. But it cannot be the default.
When we have our amazingly productive and efficient conversation via Teams or phone call, we will always send a recap email to memorialize all the goodies. This recap email also gets captured by our workflow software allowing all other team members to view the recap as necessary.
Who Will I Be Working With?
For tax, we have two-person teams so there is always a backup. Teams are assigned based on who first spoke with you, bandwidth and subject matter expertise. We also have accounting, payroll and business formation / governance. As such, you might have 4 people you work with. Yay! The two tax peeps, and if applicable, a payroll peep and an accounting peep (if you are using our Accounting Services team for bookkeeping + analysis). We also have dedicated Client Support and Tax Support teams to… well… support you and the other teams.