Financial well-being isn't just about forging a holistic plan-of-attack for your investment strategy. 

At IFA, we're big advocates of making sure investors also consider potential tax implications for your overall portfolio — which can include everything from stocks and bonds to real estate, insurance policies and other personal assets. 

Along these lines, we urge you to include tax planning as a separate yet critical step in the path of meeting your strategic financial goals. Even if it's just a matter of preparing your taxes or helping to plan ahead for business reporting and bookkeeping needs, our dedicated tax planning professionals stand ready to lend an objective hand of support. 

IFA Taxes works with existing wealth management clients of Index Fund Advisors. This includes a variety of tax planning, accounting and bookkeeping services for business owners as well as individual taxpayers. The IFA Taxes team is led by certified public accountant (CPA) Lisa Rimke and consists of an experienced group of accountants, tax planners and tax preparers. 

To help our tax clients looking for professional support, below is a brief overview of our process for a typical tax reporting season. 

How the Process Starts

Tax preparation and planning clients will be sent proposals outlining needs on an individual project basis beginning in January of each year. Worth noting: Tax work won't be initiated by our tax professionals until such a proposal is reviewed and signed by the client. Also, those engaging our services will be required at this time to provide payment information — although actual payment won't be required until the end of the process. 

Taking Advantage of the Online Tax Organizer

Clients can access IFA's Online Tax Organizer from our website by clicking here. For your convenience, it provides a Tax Organizer check list in PDF form. This tax 'cheat sheet' of sorts consists of a detailed list of documents you might need to provide us with ahead of any planning and/or tax preparation work.

Data Security and Document Transmission

In terms of safety in gathering sensitive financial information, IFA Taxes prefers that documents be provided to us digitally rather than by traditional mail or delivery services. Again, this process is designed around mazimizing security in handling documents in a secure and time-sensitive fashion. 

Key Tax Dates 

• Jan. 16 – The proposal rollout process begins.
• March 1 – For business partnerships and s-corporations, this is the deadline for IFA Taxes to receive necessary documents for tax reporting and planning purposes.
• March 15 – This is the original tax filing due date for business partnerships and s-corporation tax returns. Also, this is the date when employer SEP/Simple/Solo 401(k) contributions are due for partnerships and s-corporations. 
• April 1 – The deadline for individuals, c-corporations and trusts to provide IFA Taxes with the necessary tax reporting financial documents.
• April 15 – This date represents the original filing due date of individual, c-corporation and trust tax returns. It also serves as the deadline for employer SEP/Simple/Solo 401(k) contributions for individuals and c-corporations. Also, April 15 marks the day when tax payments for 2023 returns are due. The deadline for first quarter 2024 estimated tax payments are also due at this time.

Returns will be prepared on a first-come, first-serve basis. Clients who haven't provided us with all tax documents by the document deadline (March 1/April 1) will be considered as candidates to take advantage of IRS tax filing extension dates later in the year.

Other points to consider during this tax-filing season include:

• IFA Taxes is encouraging all clients who choose to pay via credit cards to note that due to rising processing fees such practices will require IFA to charge a separate added processing fee. It's probably also worth keeping in mind that IFA Taxes doesn't need to pass along any extra processing fees when payments are made through automated clearing house (ACH) bank transfers and checks. 

• For existing IFA wealth management clients, included in an IFA Taxes proposal is a free one-hour planning session to discuss other tax work. This can involve a range of tax planning and related consulting questions. For individuals, he finds that conversations about Roth IRA conversion strategies is a popular topic of conversation. 

• For more sophisticated and complex business and individual tax projects, IFA Taxes reserves the right to quote at least some of the work at a pre-agreed hourly rate. In general, IFA Taxes prefers to charge based on an agreed-upon overall fee. Such a flat rate is determined on an individual project basis.

Given our expectations of providing a holistic tax planning experience, we invite taxpayers to reach out directly with any specific concerns and questions by contacting Rimke at any point in the process. Rimke can be reached at: [email protected]. We also invite client referrals by emailing the IFA Taxes team at: [email protected].

---

This is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product or service. There are no guarantees investment strategies will be successful.  Investing involves risks, including possible loss of principal. This is intended to be informational in nature and should not be construed as tax advice. IFA Taxes is a division of Index Fund Advisors, Inc.

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is a license to provide accounting services to the public awarded by states upon passing their respective course work requirements and the Uniform Certified Public Accounting Examination.