Tax preparation for Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Charles Trautman, EA, prepares individual and small business returns for Highlands Ranch clients from the Lone Tree office, a few minutes east along C-470.
Common Highlands Ranch returns
Highlands Ranch is a big, settled, high-earning suburb, and the returns look like it: two incomes, a house owned long enough to have appreciated substantially, kids in or approaching college, and a growing number of people running a business out of a spare bedroom.
Home-based businesses
Consulting, contracting, and online businesses run from home are everywhere here, and the home office deduction is the part people either skip entirely or claim wrong. The exclusive-use test is stricter than most expect: a room used for work and also as a guest room does not qualify, no matter how little guests use it. Done properly it is worth real money, and it does not carry the audit stigma it had twenty years ago. We covered what qualifies and the two calculation methods here.
Selling a house you have owned a long time
Twenty years of Front Range appreciation can push a gain past the exclusion limit, which is 250,000 dollars for a single filer and 500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, provided the ownership and use tests are met. Above that, the excess is a capital gain. What reduces it is basis, and basis includes capital improvements going back to the day you bought: the finished basement, the roof, the new windows, the deck. Almost nobody keeps those receipts, and almost everybody needs them. If you are thinking about selling in the next few years, start the list now.
College, and the credits that get missed
The American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning credits both phase out by income, and plenty of Highlands Ranch households sit right around the thresholds where a small change decides eligibility. Meanwhile 529 withdrawals have to be matched against qualified expenses in the same calendar year, and the 1098-T frequently reports amounts that do not line up with what was actually paid or when. It is a reconciliation, not a data entry job.
Retirement income and the Colorado subtraction
Colorado allows a subtraction for pension and annuity income, including Social Security, with the amount tied to age. For a retired couple it is one of the more valuable lines on the state return, and it is easy for software to mishandle when the income arrives on an unusual form or gets split between spouses.
Highlands Ranch is not a city, and that changes things
Highlands Ranch is unincorporated Douglas County. There is no town government, no municipal sales tax, and no municipal business license, which makes it genuinely different from Parker, Castle Rock, or Lone Tree next door. Services come from metro districts and the county instead, funded primarily through property tax.
Two practical consequences. First, the combined sales tax rate here is lower than in the incorporated towns around it, because there is no town rate stacked on top of state, county, and regional district tax. Second, if you run a business from a Highlands Ranch address, there is no town licensing office to register with, which surprises people moving a business in from Parker or Castle Rock, where a license is required whether or not you collect any sales tax. You may still have state and county obligations, and if you sell or deliver into a home rule town, that town's rules can reach you even though your office is here.
On the property side, community association assessments are not deductible on a personal return. If part of the home qualifies as a home office, or if the property is a rental, a proportionate share may become deductible against that business or rental income. Those are the only two doors it goes through.
Looking for a CPA in Highlands Ranch?
Being straight about the wording, since it is how people search. Chuck is an Enrolled Agent, not a CPA. The EA is a federal credential issued by the IRS, earned by examination and kept current with continuing education, and it authorizes representation of taxpayers before the IRS in any state. It covers tax specifically.
For an individual return, a Schedule C, a partnership, or a small S-corp, an EA and a tax-focused CPA are doing the same work. Audited or reviewed financial statements and formal attestation for a lender need a CPA firm, and we will say so rather than take the engagement. The longer comparison is here.
How Highlands Ranch clients actually work with us
The office is close, roughly ten minutes east along C-470, so dropping documents off in person is easy if that suits you. Most people still use the secure upload because it is faster than driving anywhere, and the return gets the same read-through either way. Chuck has been preparing returns since 2010 and takes a limited number of new clients each season.
What we handle for Highlands Ranch clients
- Individual returns, federal and Colorado, prepared and e-filed
- Home-based business returns, home office, and Schedule C
- Home sale gain, basis reconstruction, and capital improvement schedules
- Education credits, 529 reconciliation, and retirement income
- Back and prior-year returns, plus IRS notices, audits, and collections
Highlands Ranch questions we get asked
Do I need a business license for a business run from my Highlands Ranch home?
There is no municipal license, because Highlands Ranch is unincorporated Douglas County rather than a town. That does not remove state registration requirements, county rules, or your community association's restrictions on home businesses, and if you sell into a home rule town its licensing rules can still apply to you. Check all three rather than assuming the absence of a town office means nothing applies.
Are my community association dues deductible?
Not on a personal return for your own residence. If a portion of the home qualifies as a home office, or if the property is rented out, a proportionate share can be deducted against that business or rental income. Outside those two situations they are a personal expense.
We are selling a house we have owned for twenty years. How much gain is taxable?
Up to 250,000 dollars of gain is excludable for a single filer and 500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, if the ownership and use tests are met. Above that it is a capital gain. Basis is what shrinks it, and basis includes capital improvements over the whole period of ownership, so gather records of the finished basement, roof, windows, and similar work before you list.
Does the home office deduction increase audit risk?
Not the way people think. It is a normal deduction with a specific test, and the test is exclusive and regular use for business. A room doing double duty as a guest room fails it. Claimed correctly it is unremarkable; claimed on a space that does not qualify is where the problem is.
Is Tax Shop a CPA firm?
No. Charles Trautman is an Enrolled Agent, a federal credential issued by the IRS covering tax specifically and authorizing representation before the IRS. For individual returns, Schedule C, partnerships, and small S-corps that is the same work a tax-focused CPA does. Audited financial statements or a formal attestation require a CPA firm.
Review
Chuck is great! He got more money back for us this year that we were not even aware of (we didn't know summer camps and child care expenses were tax deductible). We got audited last year using TurboTax. Chuck redid our tax and we ended up paying much less than the IRS calculated.
Visit or call
9233 Park Meadows Drive, Suite 202, Lone Tree, in the Panera Bread building at C-470 and Yosemite.