ONE RETURN AT A TIME

ML Lichtenberg & Associates provides individual income tax services delivered with a one-on-one approach which includes an open dialogue with you and the preparer to not only work together to verify the accuracy and completeness of the return, but to identify planning and proactive tax strategies that you can employ where appropriate. Our internal quality control process then includes a detail, technical and final review of your returns before delivery with additional dialogue when need be.

To avoid the intimidation of tax season and simplify the process, we provide you an organizer in early January to assist you in gathering all the necessary source documents and to help you identify new and or additional items to address. We provide a secure electronic portal for you to send us your tax documents in February/early March, us to send returns to you for review, and then to collect electronic signatures for you to authorize us to file on your behalf. Our preferred and widely used form of communication and coordination is electronic, but of course mail and in-person options are available. Our clients can attest this personalized service, flexibility and attention to detail makes the process of filing taxes as seamless and stress-free as possible. 

FROM COMPLIANCE TO CLARITY

ML Lichtenberg & Associates provides entity tax (primarily S Corporations & Partnerships) services that are designed to not only timely prepare your returns but to also meet both mid-year and in Q4 so we can work together to employ tax reduction and deferral strategies and clearly communicate cash flow needed to meet your tax obligations. During the year-end planning process your preparer will not only be focused on your entity profitability, but also considering the impact on your individual tax situation and will work closely with you to set your expectations of amounts and timelines of balances owing/refunds. We are all available (preparer, technical reviewer and partner) 12 months of the year for your questions.

One of the advantages of our model to immerse ourselves in your business books at least three times per year is the knowledge we gain of your business from not just the numbers but from our conversations and meetings discussing the various other aspects of your business. As a result of these interactions, we have a certain level of familiarity of your business so when you call with questions or we meet to discuss anything to assist you with decisions that need to be made, we are able to provide insight and assistance from a perspective of familiarity and knowledge of your business. Add to this these same conversations we are having with similarly sized business owners, and our clients find our insight and advice often times to be very useful.

ML Lichtenberg & Associates provides preparation and planning services for estate, trust and gift tax returns. For trust and estate returns, each year we consider the tax efficiency between the entity and beneficiaries keeping in mind the trust objectives working closely with your attorney, financial advisor and other professionals when need be. We also prepare gift tax returns.

TAX PLANNING - The 5 P’s - PROPER PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE

A common definition of tax planning is looking at the current and subsequent year(s) to determine if there will be a material increase or decrease in taxable income year over year(s) and if so, to properly accelerate or defer income and or expenses to take advantage of lower tax bracket years when able. If your income is similar year over year (and also in years of large fluctuations in income), we identify, explain and execute with you both tax reduction and tax deferral strategies. Tax reduction strategies will result in us employing tried and true planning techniques that will generate deductions to reduce your tax burdens. Tax deferral strategies result in delaying tax burdens to future years.

During both year-end planning and tax preparation time while employing tax reduction and deferral strategies, we work together to determine accurate assumption to prepare projections/forecasts of your current and next year’s tax obligations to set your expectations of amounts and timelines for your tax burdens. We also help you plan for major life events, lifestyle changes, and significant transactions by generating multi-year and multi-scenario tax projections.

Often times we are involved with you and your other advisors taking a team approach to make sure you are comprehensively taken care of. Whether it is working with your investment advisor/financial planner, estate attorney, pension administrators, life and disability insurance broker, etc., we are available to assist with not just the tax implications of your plan, but also the proactive strategies to assist everyone to help you meet all of your financial and life goals.