How We Work
How Your Return Works
Initial Discovery
We sit down with you and go through last year's return, what changed this year and what is coming up. You hear the price before any work starts.
Plan
We come back with what can still lower your bill, what each step is worth, and the estimates to set up, so nothing ends in a surprise.
Prepare
Your federal, state and local returns, reviewed with you before anything is filed.
File Taxes
You sign, we e-file, and you keep a complete copy.
Individual & Family Services
Five Services, One Office That Knows Your File
The return every year, and the rest when life calls for it. All of it from the same office.
Tax Preparation
Your return, prepared with last year's file open, by an office that keeps your history year after year.View detailsClose
Tax Preparation
A familiar process backed by experienced Enrolled Agents.
Tax season shouldn't feel like starting over every year. We keep your tax history and use it as the foundation for your return, so we can see what has changed and what deserves a closer look. Federal, state and local returns are prepared and e-filed together, and you review your completed return before anything is submitted.
What’s Included
- Federal, state and local returns, e-filed together
- Self-employment, side business and farm income
- Investment and cryptocurrency reporting
- Extensions, amended and prior-year returns
- Tax planning, with your file kept year after year
Common Questions
Do you prepare city income tax returns?
Yes. If you live or work in a Michigan city with an income tax, we prepare the city return along with your federal and Michigan returns.
Do you handle cryptocurrency and investment income?
Yes. Stock and fund sales, dividends, and cryptocurrency sales and trades all belong on the return, and we report them correctly from the statements and records you have.
Rental, Multi-State & Side Business
Rental income, a side business, or income from another state or abroad, handled together so you are not taxed twice on the same income.View detailsClose
Rental, Multi-State & Side Business
Rental income, a side business, or income from another state or abroad, handled together so you are not taxed twice on the same income.
A rental, a side business, a job across a state line, income from abroad: each is money arising somewhere other than a single W-2, and each has its own forms. Handled on one return they work out. Handled separately, people pay twice or miss what they could deduct.
What’s Included
- Rental income (Schedule E), with depreciation set up right
- Side-business and freelance income (Schedule C), with self-employment tax
- Non-resident and part-year state returns
- Foreign income, and the credit that keeps it from being taxed twice
- The credit for tax paid to another state
- Repairs and improvements sorted properly
Common Questions
I live in Michigan and work in another state. Where do I file?
It depends on the state. Michigan has reciprocal agreements with Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, so wages you earn in those states are taxed only by Michigan, though Indiana county tax can still apply. For other states you usually file in both: the work state taxes the income first, and Michigan gives a credit for tax paid to it, so you are not taxed twice.
What can I deduct on a rental property?
Mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, repairs, management fees, travel to the property, and depreciation on the building. Improvements are not deducted in the year they are made; they are capitalized and depreciated. The line between a repair and an improvement is where most self-prepared returns go wrong.
Estate & Trust Returns
For executors and trustees: the final personal return, the estate or trust return, and the K-1s the beneficiaries need.View detailsClose
Estate & Trust Returns
For executors and trustees: the final personal return, the estate or trust return, and the K-1s the beneficiaries need.
If you are the executor of an estate or the trustee of a trust, the tax filings are yours to get right, usually at a hard time. We prepare the returns, the final personal return and the paperwork the beneficiaries need, and we tell you plainly what is due.
What’s Included
- The final individual return for the person who died
- Estate and trust income tax returns (Form 1041)
- The Michigan fiduciary return
- The K-1 each beneficiary needs for their own return
- Working alongside your estate attorney
Common Questions
Does every estate have to file a 1041?
No. An estate files a Form 1041 when it earns more than a small amount of income after the person's death, from interest, dividends, rent or the sale of assets. The IRS threshold is low, so most estates that hold anything for a while end up filing. We work out which returns are actually due.
What is the difference between the final 1040 and the 1041?
The final 1040 covers the person's own income from the start of the year until the date of death. The 1041 covers income the estate or trust earns after that. Both are often needed in the same year.
Unfiled & Back Taxes
Every missing year filed and the balance sorted out, starting from whatever records you still have.View detailsClose
Unfiled & Back Taxes
Every missing year filed and the balance sorted out, starting from whatever records you still have.
One missed year is easier to avoid than to face, and then it is three. We do this work often, we start from wherever you are, and nobody here is going to lecture you about it.
What’s Included
- Your IRS wage and income transcripts, requested for you
- Every missing year prepared and filed
- Payment plans and penalty relief
- Substitute returns the IRS filed for you, replaced
- Old years rebuilt from IRS records when yours are gone
Common Questions
How many years back do I need to file?
The IRS generally asks for the last six years to consider you current, though the right answer depends on whether you owed in the missing years and whether the IRS has already filed a substitute return for you. We work out which years actually need filing before anyone starts assembling paperwork.
What if I cannot pay what I owe?
File anyway. The failure to file penalty runs at ten times the failure to pay penalty, so filing without paying is far cheaper than doing neither. Once the returns are in, payment plans, penalty relief for reasonable cause and, in some circumstances, an offer in compromise become available.
IRS Notice Help
A letter from the IRS or Michigan Treasury: we read it, tell you what it says, and answer it for you.View detailsClose
IRS Notice Help
A letter from the IRS or Michigan Treasury: we read it, tell you what it says, and answer it for you.
Bring it in and we will read it with you. Most notices are narrower than they sound, and as Enrolled Agents we are authorized to answer this one for you rather than hand it back.
What’s Included
- IRS and Michigan Treasury notices, read with you
- Letters about missing income (CP2000), balances due and audits
- Penalty relief and payment plans
- We deal with the IRS for you, with your signed permission (Form 2848)
- A written response with the right documents
Common Questions
What should I do first when an IRS letter arrives?
Find the notice number and the response date printed on it. Do not ignore it, and do not pay or agree to anything until you know the amount is right. Response windows vary by notice, and some allow only ten business days, so the worst outcomes come from letting one pass. Bring the notice to the office, or call and we will tell you how to send it to us securely.
What is a CP2000 notice?
A CP2000 is not a bill and not an audit. It means income reported to the IRS by an employer, bank or brokerage does not match your return. You respond by the date on the notice, using the response form it includes: agree, or disagree with an explanation and documents. Often income was reported in the wrong place or a cost basis was missing, and the proposed amount can fall once the correct figures are documented. Davis & Associates can prepare and send that response for you.
Worried about a deadline? Call (269) 344-8727, or message us tonight.
From a Client
New to the Area, a New Home, a New Marriage
John was absolutely phenomenal. We are new to the area and needed a long-term tax preparer. We recently bought a home and got married and had a somewhat complex return. I reached out and John responded to me within an hour. We did all of our documents online and John was very communicative and on the ball with everything. I see why he has nothing but good reviews. I was and still am highly impressed and you best bet we will be coming back next year just for the service John provided to us. Very punctual, informative and worth every penny. Less expensive than if you were to use H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt. Highly recommend!
4.7 out of 5 across all 27 Google reviews. The review shown is chosen from those rated 5 stars.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use a tax preparer instead of tax software?
Software only knows what you type in. A team that knows your file asks about the things that changed, catches the deduction you did not know to claim, and answers for the return if the IRS ever writes. For a simple return the difference is small. Add a rental, a side business, a move or a sale, and it is not.
What does it cost?
It depends on what the return needs: a W-2 and a standard deduction is at one end, and a rental, a business schedule or a second state move it along. You hear the price before any work starts.
Do you help with quarterly estimated payments?
Yes. If you are self-employed, retired or have income without withholding, we work out what to pay each quarter so the return does not end in a surprise, and adjust the estimates when your income changes.
Can you prepare returns for the rest of my family too?
Yes. A parent's return, an adult child's first return, or an estate return after a death in the family can all come to the same office, each prepared on its own.
A letter came from the IRS. Can you help even if you did not prepare the return?
Yes. We take notice work on returns we did not prepare. Bring the letter and the return it refers to, or send a photo of the letter, and we will tell you what it actually says.