How It Works
How working with me actually goes
Five numbered steps, a written price before any of them start, and a status you can check at eleven at night without emailing me to ask.
Most of the discomfort in hiring a CPA has nothing to do with tax. You send a stack of documents into an inbox, the inbox goes quiet, and you have no way to tell whether the return is sitting on your desk or mine until an invoice shows up in April.
The portal I run this practice on, Tax Nucleus, fixes that. Every return moves through five numbered steps. Each one reads Not Started, In Progress, or Complete, with a progress bar that says something like 3 of 5 steps done. Here is what happens at each step, what it needs from you, and what it costs you in time.
- FreeInitial consultation, no obligation
- 5Portal steps, each with a live status
- April 15, 2027Individual returns and payment due
Before step one: a conversation and a number
Nothing starts in the portal. It starts with a free consultation, which is a conversation about your situation rather than a pitch. I want to know how you are paid (a W-2 from a hospital or group, 1099-NEC contract work, a K-1 from a partnership, or two of the three at once), which states are in play, whether you own an entity or ought to, and what went sideways last year if something did.
Those facts run through a complexity assessment: number of income sources, states filed, schedules and forms required, entities involved, transaction volume, foreign accounts, and whether a prior year needs cleanup before the current one can be done properly. Out of that comes a written estimate, in your hands before you sign anything and before you owe anything. The pricing page shows how the number is built and why it comes from a formula instead of a preparer's read on what you can pay.
If you have one W-2, take the standard deduction, and file in a single state, consumer software will handle that correctly and cost less than I do. I will say so on the call, not after you have paid me.
One honest note. The five steps below are the real flow inside Tax Nucleus. The public client login is still being finalized, so if you are starting now, the first exchange happens through the contact form and I bring you into the portal from there.
The five steps, in order
Engagement Letter
The letter names what I am doing, what I am not doing, and the estimated price from your consultation. It posts to your portal for e-signature. Nothing starts on my end until it is signed.
Questionnaire
A structured set of questions about the tax year: income sources, dependents, moves, property sales, retirement contributions, states you worked in, anything that changed. What you answer here decides which documents I ask for next, so care at this step removes several rounds of back-and-forth later.
Tasks & Questions
The working step, and usually the longest one. I post specific requests as individual tasks (upload the Form 1098, confirm the closing statement on the rental, explain a deposit that matches nothing else) and you clear them one at a time, uploading straight into your document vault. The clock here is almost entirely a function of how fast documents come back.
Review & Sign Return
The finished return posts as a PDF you can page through in the browser before you sign. Read it, and ask about any line you want walked through. Your signature on Form 8879 is what authorizes electronic filing; until it is there, nothing goes to the IRS.
Invoice
The final price settles against the same complexity scale that produced the estimate, and if it moved in either direction the reason sits next to the number. The invoice posts alongside the completed return, and paying it closes step five.
How long it takes
Once your documents are complete, a straightforward individual return, meaning a W-2 or two, a mortgage, some investment income and a single state, is usually finished and posted for your review within one to two weeks. Add an entity return, a rental, several states, or a K-1 that shows up late, and plan on two to four weeks. Prior-year cleanup runs on its own clock, because rebuilding a year is a different job than filing one.
Those are normal-season numbers. In the last three weeks before April 15 everything stretches, and a return that arrives complete in the first week of April is a candidate for an extension rather than a rush job. I would rather file in June with the depreciation schedule right than file on April 14 with it wrong. An extension moves the filing date to October 15 and never moves the payment date, so we estimate what you owe and pay it by April 15 either way.
The one variable I do not control is step 3. If a requested document sits for three weeks, the return sits for three weeks, and the portal will say so without either of us sending an email about it.
Who the work is waiting on
The statuses exist to answer one question without you having to ask it: is this waiting on you or on me. If step 3 reads In Progress with two open tasks under your name, it is on you. If step 4 reads In Progress, I am working and there is nothing for you to do.
Questions in between come to me. Anything that turns on judgment about your particular facts, I answer myself, and you will not be handed to someone else to get that answer. There is no account manager here, because there is no one else here.
Ask NucleI is there for the other kind of question, the one that occurs to you on a Sunday night when you want to get oriented before you write to me. It is a research assistant inside the portal: you ask in plain language, and it answers with its sources cited, so you can expand them and read the authority yourself instead of taking the answer on faith. It has a usage quota and keeps a history of what you asked. It answers questions about the law. Questions about your return are mine. The portal walkthrough shows what all of it looks like.
After the return is filed
Filing does not close the account. Your documents stay in the vault, in folders by tax year, with a record of who uploaded each file and when. The next time a lender wants two years of returns by Friday, you pull them yourself.
A household sits under one login. A spouse's return, or an adult child's first return, appears under the same account with a switcher between members, so one family is not keeping three sets of credentials. Documents never travel as email attachments in either direction, and the session logs you out on its own if you walk away from the screen.
The year does not have to go quiet until next February either. Most of what planning can change has to happen before December 31. If you are about to sell property, change entity structure, take work in a second state, or make a large charitable gift, that is a conversation worth having while the outcome can still move.
What this process does not do
Worth saying plainly, since most firms describe only the happy path.
- A step marked Complete is not a filed return. The year closes when the return is transmitted and the IRS accepts it
- The estimate is not a ceiling. If the documents show more complexity than you described at intake, the price moves up against the same scale, and you see which factor moved it
- The turnaround ranges above assume documents that are complete and legible. A missing K-1 or a bank statement nobody can find pauses the clock, and no status bar can unpause it for you
- The engagement letter defines the scope. An IRS notice that lands in June, or a prior year that needs rebuilding, gets its own assessment and its own written estimate before that work starts
- Ask NucleI cites its sources so you can verify them. It is a research tool, not my signature on a position
- If everything arrives in the first week of April, expect an extension to October 15. An extension moves the filing date and never the payment date, so what you owe is still due April 15
Hunter did my taxes last year. Super professional, straightforward, prompt, and fair. I will never do my own taxes again.
How to start
Start with the free consultation. No charge, no obligation. There is no phone number and no email address published on this site, deliberately, so the way in is the contact form.
Tell me how you are paid, which states are involved, and what you would like to be different about this year. I will come back with questions, and once I can score the work honestly, a number. If you would rather show up with your documents already in order, here is what to have ready.
A Walkthrough
This is the portal, running.
Jane Whitfield is invented and so are her documents, but every screen, label and step is the real thing. It plays itself — click any section to take over.
Questions, answered plainly.
Do I pay anything before the return is finished?
No. The consultation is free, the estimate is free, and the invoice is step 5, which arrives after the return is prepared and after you have reviewed and signed it. If you read the estimate and decide against moving forward, you owe nothing.
How long does a return take once I have sent everything?
In a normal stretch of the season, a straightforward individual return is usually posted for your review within one to two weeks of the documents being complete. Multiple states, an entity return, or a late K-1 pushes that to roughly two to four weeks. Inside the last three weeks before April 15, expect longer, and expect me to suggest an extension rather than rush a return I have not had time to check properly.
What happens if I stall in the middle of step 3?
Your return sits where it is with the open tasks still listed, and nothing is lost. I follow up. If April 15 is close and the documents are not in, I file an extension, which moves the filing deadline to October 15 and does not move the payment deadline. If you expect to owe, we estimate the amount and pay it by April 15 anyway.
Can my spouse be on the same account?
Yes. Household accounts put multiple members under one login with a switcher between them, so a joint return, a spouse's business return, and a child's first return all live in one place. Each return still runs its own five steps with its own progress bar.
What if I disagree with something on the return at step 4?
Say so before you sign. Step 4 exists because a return you have not read is a return you cannot stand behind, and the signature on Form 8879 is yours. If you think a number is wrong, I will show you where it came from and either explain the treatment or correct it.
The first conversation is free.
Tell me what's going on and I'll tell you plainly whether you need me.
Schedule a Free Consultation