Lone Tree, Colorado

Why the Tax Shop?

You’re busy with what you do. We do income tax every day. That’s the whole argument.

We prepare income tax returns every day, several times a day, all year. It’s what we do. It probably isn’t what you do. You’re good at your work because you do it every day; we’re good at this for the same reason. Preparing a tax return is not rocket science, but there are a thousand things to know, and they change every year.

12 hoursis what the IRS says the average taxpayer spends on a federal return each year

That’s the IRS’s own estimate, from the Form 1040 instructions: about 12 hours and $290 a year for the average filer, counting record-keeping, planning, filling out the forms and filing. For anyone with a business, a rental, or a farm, the IRS puts it at more than 20 hours. That’s a weekend, or three working days, spent on something you do once a year and we do every day. What is a Saturday worth to you? If you run a business, what do you bill for three days?

To be fair about it: gathering your source documents is your job no matter who prepares the return. Call that two hours. The other ten are the part we take.

Source: IRS, Form 1040 instructions, “Estimates of Taxpayer Burden.” The average includes people who used a preparer, so the do-it-yourself figure is higher.

Three reasons people use us

Your time One meeting to drop off your source documents, a couple of days while we work, one short wrap-up to review and sign. An hour or two of your time, not a weekend of yours.
The cost of a mistake A missed deduction costs you money you never see. A missed form costs you a letter two years later, with interest. Either one usually costs more than the return.
Confidence A person who does this every day prepared it, and an Enrolled Agent reviewed it and signed it. When something comes up in August, you call us.

Top 10 reasons to use the Tax Shop

It takes an hour or two of your time, not a weekend.One meeting, a couple of days while we work, one short wrap-up. The IRS says the average return takes 12 hours. Most of ours is time you don’t spend.
A person who does this every day prepares it, and asks the questions.Software fills in what you tell it. A preparer who has seen a few thousand returns asks about the things you didn’t know mattered.
An Enrolled Agent reviews and signs every return.The owner, Charles Trautman, is an Enrolled Agent. Nothing leaves this office without his review and signature next to yours.
A missed deduction or a missed form costs more than the return.We find the HSA that was never deducted, the depreciation that was never taken, the basis that was never entered. A basic return is $175; any one of those is worth more.
We read last year’s return first.It’s the first thing we do with every new client. If something was missed, we find it there and amend it. Bring your last self-prepared return with this year’s documents.
We’re here in August.Same office, same phone, same people all year. When the IRS or Colorado writes, you bring us the letter, and with a power of attorney we talk to the IRS so you don’t have to.
You know the price going in, and there’s nothing else to buy.A basic federal and Colorado return, prepared and e-filed, is $175. No refund-advance loans, no prepaid cards, no “audit protection” plans. See pricing.
Colorado is done as its own return.The pension and Social Security subtractions with their shared cap, the 529 deduction, the $300,000 addback. The state return is where software leaves the most money behind.
We keep your record.Your return, workpapers, depreciation schedules and carryovers stay in your file, so next year starts from a complete record and not a guess about what the software did.
Since 1969, and most of our clients were sent by other clients.That’s the only review that matters. Clients anywhere in the country work with us through the portal the same way.

Your time

Here is what a tax return takes when you do it yourself: finding the documents, remembering what you did last year, reading the instructions for the one form you didn’t need last year, second-guessing the questions the software asks, and wondering at the end whether you got it right. The IRS counts that at 12 hours on average. People who have done it will tell you the IRS is being generous.

Here is what it takes when you bring it to us:

1. First meeting Bring your source documents to the office, or upload them to your secure portal. We go through them with you and ask our questions. No separate charge; it’s part of preparing the return.
2. A couple of days We prepare the return and post a draft to your portal. You go back to your life.
3. Wrap-up In person or remote. You review the final return, we explain anything that changed from last year, you sign the e-file authorization, and we file it.
Anywhere in the country Clients outside Colorado work with us through the portal the same way. Switching from another preparer? Bring last year’s return and this year’s source documents. The tax organizer is optional but helps.

Your part is the hour or two. Ours is everything on the list further down this page, which is the part most people don’t know is happening.

★★★★★

“Shocked at how quick and easy it was to get my taxes done! Quick communication, very knowledgeable, easy to work with. Taxes stress me out and this process was not stressful at all! A huge weight off my shoulders.”

Google review

The cost of a mistake

Tax mistakes are quiet. Nobody calls to tell you about the deduction you missed; the money is just gone. The other kind of mistake, the one the IRS does catch, arrives as a letter about two years later, with interest and a penalty added. We see both kinds every season on returns people prepared themselves, and they almost never happen on the form. They happen in the question that never got asked.

About $1,100An HSA contribution you made yourself and never deducted. The deduction is $4,400 for 2026 with self-only coverage; at a 22% federal rate plus Colorado, that’s roughly $1,100 of tax paid that wasn’t owed. We find this one every year on self-prepared returns.
ThousandsA rental with no depreciation taken. Depreciation on a $300,000 building is about $10,900 a year of deduction. Skip it and you pay tax on income you didn’t have, and the IRS taxes its recapture at sale whether you took it or not.
The whole saleStock reported with a zero cost basis. The broker’s 1099-B only shows the sale price on older shares. Enter it as-is and the full sale is taxed as gain. The IRS doesn’t correct this in your favor.
A letterA 1099 that didn’t make it onto the return. The IRS matches every form against your return by computer and sends a CP2000 about two years later: the tax, plus interest for two years, plus a 20% accuracy penalty if the amount is large.
Years of itThe same mistake repeated. A deduction missed in one year is usually missed in the next three, because the software copies last year forward and never asks again. Returns can be amended three years back; before that, the money is gone.

The arithmetic is simple. A basic return is $175. Any one of the mistakes above costs more than that, and most people who prepare their own return make at least one of them in a year their life changed.

Bring your last self-prepared return with this year’s source documents. Reading last year’s return is the first thing we do with every new client anyway, and more often than you’d think we find something worth amending. Returns can be amended three years back federal, four for Colorado. It isn’t a separate service; it’s part of preparing this year’s return.

★★★★★

“This was my first time having him prepare my taxes. He was very knowledgeable and gave some great advice. His cost to prepare my taxes was half of what I had been paying my previous tax preparer, and I am getting a refund this year, bigger than the last two years, because he discussed with me some important financial moves.”

Google review

Confidence

Confidence is the part you can’t buy from software, and it comes from four plain things. A person who does this every day prepared the return and asked the questions. An Enrolled Agent reviewed it and signed it, so our name is on it next to yours. We keep the record — the return, the workpapers, the depreciation schedules, the carryovers — so next year starts from what actually happened. And we’re here in August: when a letter comes from the IRS or Colorado, you bring it to us, and with a power of attorney we talk to the IRS so you don’t have to.

You sign a tax return under penalty of perjury. It deserves someone who stands behind it.

What we actually do with your return

Most of the work in a tax return happens before and after the numbers go in. This is what is going on in the couple of days between your first meeting and your wrap-up.

Before a number goes in

Read last year’s return front to back: carryovers, depreciation schedules, suspended losses, credits that carry.
Compare this year’s source documents against last year’s and ask about anything that’s missing.
Spot the document that isn’t there: the 1098 for a house you own, the 1099-SA for an HSA, the 1095-A for marketplace insurance.
Ask the questions the forms don’t. Who lived in your house, and for how long. Who married, divorced, moved, retired, started a business, went to college, had a baby.
Check names and Social Security numbers against the cards, so the e-file isn’t rejected three weeks later.
Settle filing status, which isn’t always what you assume. Head of household for someone supporting a parent; separate returns when a student loan is income-based.
Settle the “can someone claim you” question before a child files first and locks the parents out.

While the return is being built

Enter a brokerage 1099 line by line and chase the cost basis on every sale the broker didn’t report.
Catch the wash sale, the capital gain distribution from a fund that lost money, the Treasury interest Colorado doesn’t tax.
Match every 1099-R code to what really happened: a rollover, a conversion, a charitable distribution and a disability payment all arrive on the same form.
Take the depreciation a landlord is owed, including the years that were missed.
Separate repairs from improvements, and business from personal, on rentals and vehicles.
Rebuild a self-employed client’s expenses from bank statements and a shoebox, and say what’s still missing.
Decide whether a side activity is a business or a hobby, and whether the loss will hold up.
Apply the rules that changed this year: which deductions phase out at what income, what the SALT cap is, which credit no longer exists.
Coordinate the things that fight each other: the 529 withdrawal against the education credit, the dependent care FSA against the child care credit, the HSA against the medical deduction.
Catch the contributions you made and didn’t mention: HSA, IRA, student loan interest, educator expenses.
Prepare the Colorado return as its own return: the pension and Social Security subtractions with their shared cap, the 529 deduction, the $300,000 addback.
Handle the part-year or two-state return, and the credit so the same income isn’t taxed twice.
Reconcile marketplace insurance on Form 8962, and tell you ahead of time if the subsidy is being paid back.

Checking the work

Compare the finished return to last year’s, line by line, and explain every difference. A refund that fell $2,000 has a reason.
A second set of eyes. Every return is reviewed and signed by an Enrolled Agent.
Run the diagnostics and the IRS e-file validation, fix what comes back, resend. You never see this part.
Check your withholding for next year and hand you the W-4 or W-4P fix, so the same surprise doesn’t repeat.
Set up estimated payments for the self-employed and the retired, and figure the safe harbor that avoids the penalty.

After the return

Keep the return, the workpapers and the carryovers, so next year starts from a record and not a guess.
Include an installment agreement request on the return when the balance can’t be paid at once.
Amend a prior year when we find money that was left behind. Three years back federal, four for Colorado.
Answer the IRS letter when it comes. Read the notice, pull the file, respond. With a power of attorney, you never call the IRS.
Tell you the thing you didn’t ask about: that the Roth conversion is cheap this year, that the rental should be sold after year-end, that a parent’s assisted living counts as medical.

The alternatives, briefly

Tax softwareGood at filling in forms from the answers you give it. It doesn’t know which questions to ask, it doesn’t know what it wasn’t told, and when the IRS writes, its job is over. The free version is free for a simple W-2 return and not much else.
The national chainsOften seasonal preparers trained for a few weeks on the company’s software, in an office that closes in May, with fees well above ours for the same forms and products to sell you on the way out.
An AIImpressive at explaining tax rules; we use one in the office for research. It can’t see your documents, can’t be held responsible for the result, and will give you a confident answer whether or not it’s right. More at 10 Concerns About AI Tax Prep.
When you really don’t need usOne or two W-2s, the standard deduction, no dependents, no investments, no side income, no Colorado complications: the free software will do a fine job and you should use it. We’d rather say so than take $175 for a return you could do in twenty minutes. The moment life gets more complicated — a side business, a rental, a house sale, a child in college, a year you didn’t file, a letter from the IRS — a preparer earns the fee many times over.

What we don’t do

Income tax is the specialty, and we try to do it really well. We don’t do payroll, sales tax or bookkeeping; we’re glad to point you to people who do, and we don’t take referral fees. We don’t offer discounts, because the prices are already low for everyone. We don’t quote over the phone, because what a return costs depends mostly on how organized your source documents are when you bring them in. Payment is due when the return is finished: cash, check, Venmo, or credit card with a 3% processing fee.

Haven’t filed in a while? That’s one of the things we do most. Start at Behind on your taxes? For tax questions of any kind, our Tax Topics library has the answers in plain English.

★★★★★

“Chuck took care of four years of catch-up tax returns. Big-time helpful. I’m glad I found him.”

Google review

Ready when you are

Call 303-734-1040 Fax, mail, or send a request