Posted Wednesday, December 4, 2024
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Sending Docs Checklist for Biz Tax Returns
The quality of your business entity tax return (1065, 1120 and 1120S) and the timeliness of its preparation depend strongly on obtaining all your tax documents and information. Therefore, we have created the following checklist for our worksheets as secure digital forms (also available as non-fillable PDFs) and tax related documents. As more companies move to electronic delivery of their tax documents and statements, this checklist will help ensure you are not missing important tax documentation.
Here are some important dates and considerations for us to help manage expectations:
Tax Docs – Monday, February 9, 2026
All tax documentation must be received for us to guarantee an on-time filing (we routinely receive business documentation well into April and still complete the tax returns on time- we just can’t promise it).
Efile Auth – Monday, March 9, 2026
All eFile or Extension authorizations must be received.
Filing Day – Monday, March 16, 2026
Filing Day – Monday, March 16, 2026The filing deadline for Partnerships (Form 1065) and S Corporations (Form 1120S). Note that C Corporations (Form 1120) are due Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Tax payments might also be due in some situations.
Our turnaround times vary throughout the year. We will update you with email and text alerts along the way. For real-time information on our turnaround times please visit our Service Level Agreement. We have a soft-close at 4:05PM on Fridays to enjoy a beer, chips and salsa, and to unwind a bit. Apparently having fun before 4:00 is frowned upon in our establishment. Back at it on Saturday!
You might need a tax return “rushed” for various reasons. If we do not have substantially all the required information to prepare a tax return by our document cutoff date of Monday, February 9, we might impose an expedite fee. These fees might be waived or increased depending on your situation. Please note- we are not saying you must pay this rush fee if you miss a cutoff; we only charge it if you want a guaranteed timely filing once we are past the Monday, February 9 document cutoff. Having said all this, nothing good happens when people are rushed at the last minute. We will accept the rush arrangement on a case-by-case basis.
Sending Us Your Documents (the fun part!)
We provide worldwide tax preparation service and your ability to communicate with us is critical to everyone’s success. And your comfort level in sending sensitive and personal information is our top priority so we have implemented three ways to safely and securely send your tax documents to us:
ShareFile
Since 2007 we have used ShareFile to provides secure, online document exchange. ShareFile will allow you to securely upload your tax documents to our office. As more companies electronically provide year-end tax statements and forms, and as scanners become more user friendly, uploading these files will save you time and resources. In addition, ShareFile will be used to deliver your tax returns for review prior to eFiling.
Note on Scanning: Do what you can, but know that creating and submitting a PDF for each tax document is our selfish preference should you be wondering. We drag each tax document into various folders in your electronic tax binder.
We understand not everyone will be comfortable using ShareFile and therefore we will accommodate all reasonable requests accompanied with cash or booze for alternative ways of sending your tax documents to us. Otherwise, you can access ShareFile using this link.
Secure Fax
While super duper rare, if you decide to fax your tax documents our toll-free fax number is 855-345-9700. We will email you and send a text message alerting you that your fax was received. We will also upload your faxed documents to Sharefile should you need this information again in the future. Please provide a cover letter with all faxes. If you want to be a superstar and have our tax support team think you are the best client ever, you should initial and number each page. But that is not required.
Mail
MailIf you do not have access to a fax machine or scanner, you may also mail your information to us. We encourage the use of FedEx or UPS. Send us copies, please! Our mailing address is:
WCG CPAs & Advisors
2393 Flying Horse Club Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
Road Trip
Our Colorado Springs offices are open Tuesday-Thursday during tax season. If making a road trip to our office, tax preparation seems to improve dramatically with donuts or doughnuts, up to you. You can also hang out and have some coffee in our social lounge. Fun!
Note: The ability to maintain our competitive fees relies on receiving soft copies (faxes, scans, emails) or hard copies of your originals. If you send us original documents and do not want them returned to you we will maintain them in our office for three years. If you want originals sent back to you, please understand that we do not have extra resources during tax season for this activity- we can only return originals in May or November.
All tax documents and work papers that you provide as hard copies will be scanned and uploaded to your ShareFile as your legacy locker.
Let Us Know
Lastly, you can use any combination of these methods- if you want to upload some documents and fax others, we are flexible. However, it is difficult to know when clients are done sending their tax documents. So, please send an email to [email protected] with a “G2G” or give us a shout at 719-387-9800 to let us know you are done. We love phone calls from our clients- voices, stories, weather updates, the latest disaster your kid created, random tax questions- all good stuff!
Also, if you are waiting on one last tax document such as a rogue K-1 or 1099, please send what you have. We will prepare a preliminary tax return and simply drop in the late document at the last minute.
Appointment
Over 80% of our tax clients live outside of Colorado, therefore we are proficient in preparing your tax return without a face-to-face appointment. However, if Colorado Springs is convenient for you or if you would like to videoconference via Teams, please call or email us to schedule. If an appointment is inconvenient, remember you can always mail, fax or scan your tax documents to us.
Growing Pains
We are a growing company and every year we retool our procedures in the name of improving the client experience. The unfortunate thing about our business is that we don’t know our process is broken or needs improvement until about March 26, and the devil we created is the devil we live with until April 15. Each year we attempt to improve our process for you- the feedback you provide is tremendous, and we appreciate all the comments and suggestions.
Rest assured that anytime you feel your needs are not being met, please contact Jason Watson directly. We will stop, listen and work with you one on one to resolve. If we stink at something, we want to know. We’ll make it right, right away.
The Business Tax Return Process
Here is a timeline of what to expect. Life is all about managing expectations and we attempt to do that here:
Assembly
- You send us your tax stuff and we alert you through an email and a text message that it is received.
- Tax Support reviews it for obvious missing information or items, and contacts you if necessary.
- Your electronic file is assigned to a two-person team based on legacy for returning clients, or type and complexity for new clients. We also alert you with an email and a text message.
Tax Return Preparation
- Your Tax Accountant alongside your Client Manager prepares your tax returns. Fun!
- If there are questions or clarifications needed, your Tax Accountant contacts you via email or telephone call. You are also alerted with a text message. We try to only have one point of contact (or one throat to choke) so communications are efficient for you.
Tax Return Review
- If your tax returns are ready for review, we send a summary email highlighting concerns or questions, upload a PDF copy to ShareFile and alert you with a text message. In the homestretch now!
- If you have questions or comments, you can reply to the tax return summary email or we can schedule an appointment. We always want you to understand your tax returns and feel comfortable about the information being filed. For a scheduled tax return review, we typically allocate 40 minutes and will send a custom scheduling link. These are usually conducted with Teams for screen sharing and other productivity tools.
Warning: We strongly encourage you to schedule your tax return review within 10 business days of receiving the draft copies. If you have had draft copies of your tax returns for more than 10 business days, we might not have availability to review your tax returns prior to the filing deadline. Also, we cannot review your individual tax return during April or October. Do not feel rushed! We can simply extend the filing of the tax returns until May or June, and schedule a review for that time.
Please move ‘review tax returns’ ahead of ‘call mom’ just this one time. Pretty please.
Filing Your Tax Returns and Action Items
Once you review and approve your tax returns, you need to do two things:
- Give us permission to eFile your tax returns on your behalf, AND
- Pay your tax preparation fee. No tax returns are filed until payment is made.
When we deliver tax returns, an invoice is sent. A few hours later, an eFile authorization is also sent. Both are sent to your email from our workflow software called Canopy. You can also directly access this information and learn more here.
About 2-3 days after eFiling you will receive emails from our tax software (UltraTax) letting you know that your tax returns have been received. It is common for states to accept your tax returns before the IRS. We get the same notifications CCd to us and alert you with a text message as well. We monitor the acceptance of your tax returns, and follow up with the taxing agencies after 72 hours if an acceptance notification is not received.
About 4-6 weeks after receiving acceptance notifications, refunds (if applicable) are directly deposited into your account. States are routinely flagging random tax returns for manual processing which adds about 8-12 weeks to the refund and at times they will also mail a paper refund check (to curb tax return fraud).
Boom! That’s it (at least until next year). Enjoy your spring and summer! Well, that is not entirely true. May, June and July is our tax planning season. Tax planning is automagically included with our Business Advisory, Investor Patrol and Tax Patrol Services. We will send correspondence to remind you as well.
Table Of Contents
Tax Planning Season
Tax planning season is here! Let's schedule a time to review tax reduction strategies and generate a mock tax return.
Bookkeeping Services
Tired of maintaining your own books? Seems like a chore to offload?
Table Of Contents
Tax Strategies
Key Takeaways
- Build wealth, not just deductions. Tax reduction is a subset of wealth building- not the goal itself. Manufactured tax deductions that trap cash (overfunded 401k plans, depreciating assets, captive investment pools) might save taxes but reduce flexibility. The sweet spot is when a move both builds long-term equity and improves tax efficiency. In short: wealth first, taxes second and keep an eye on your liquidity.
- Cash is king. Illiquidity for the sake of a few tax bucks paints you into a corner. You must always have an exit strategy that aligns with your risk and time horizons.
- Every tax move trades something. Every strategy requires one or more of three ingredients — cash, effort, or risk. Cash leaves your pocket (retirement plans, DAFs), effort means you participate (REPS, STR loophole), and risk means audit or economic exposure (oil & gas, structured equipment leases, captives). Real savings come from balancing those costs against lasting benefits.
- Economic Substance is litmus test #1. Whether it’s leasing equipment, forming a captive, or claiming bonus depreciation, the IRS always asks two questions: Was there profit potential beyond tax savings, and did you actually bear risk? If either answer is “no,” you’re in trouble. Documentation, ownership, and genuine business purpose separate good planning from a reportable transaction. No risk it, no biscuit.
- Material participation is commonly litmus test #2. For most tax strategies, especially the advanced ones, to convert losses from passive to active, you must show real involvement—hours, managerial decisions, and skin in the game.
- If it takes a pitch deck to explain, it’s probably marketing. Solid tax planning usually fits on one page. When you’re staring at 40 slides, arrows, and entities with Latin names, that’s not sophistication, it’s lipstick on a refurb’d reject. Think of a time share seminar. Avoid the illusion of precision or sophistication with fancy marketing. Good ideas don’t take a lot of words to explain.
- Investments are like tattoos. The best tax outcome is the one that still looks good five years later when the tax benefits are gone and the investment remains. A bad investment for a tax deduction remains a bad investment.
- Align tax deductions with unusually high income. Year-end planning isn’t about cramming deductions into December—it’s about matching expenses with the years they matter most. That means bigger deductions belong in higher income years, and lighter years are for delayed tax deduction satisfaction in favor of Roth conversions, harvesting gains, or cleaning up carryforwards. Think marginal rate arbitrage, not tax FOMO or reactive spending.
The following list of tax strategies and considerations is used in our communication and eventual recap email to WCG’s wonderful clients (and prospective clients). If you are not a WCGer, it is totally cool that you stumbled on this webpage full of fun tax content. Use it as you like.
Table Of Contents
Tax Planning Season
Tax planning season is here! Let's schedule a time to review tax reduction strategies and generate a mock tax return.
Bookkeeping Services
Tired of maintaining your own books? Seems like a chore to offload?
