Huddleston Tax CPAs have specialized accounting services for law firms. Some of our CPAs have acquired law degrees and served as members of the Washington Law Review Executive Board.
CPAs are integral members of your legal team especially as your law firm grows. Rather than bring in bookkeepers or accountants in-house (which can be costly), choose a specialized CPA firm for both. For small sole proprietors to large, multi-partner law firms, Huddleston Tax CPAs can tend to all of your accounting and bookkeeping needs.
Some of the ways Huddleston Tax CPAs function as specially equipped law firm accountants are:
1. Business Valuation
To start with, Huddleston Tax CPAs can provide an estimate of what your law firm is valued at in its current state as well as different scenarios and business strategies. We consider the value of your law firm’s assets in the event of a liquidation or sale, and we offer small business coaching to help you and your business to achieve the desired outcome.
2. Law Firm Management
We don’t intend to run your business for you, but law firms need a third-party, privy to finances, that can help attorneys and partners with:
- Control of expenses
- Capping billable hours
- Settling partner (and staff) compensation disputes
- Employee retention
- Improving collections
- And more
Huddleston Tax CPAs can help your law firm run efficiently and effectively.
3. Manage Cash Flow
Our CPAs conduct a thorough review of your law firm, addressing concerns and ensuring you maintain financial control. We find ways to achieve tax breaks
Entity Selection
Your entity selection will affect Income Tax and Payroll/Self-Employment Tax, so there are a number of considerations there in. Certified Public Accountants familiar with the practice of law are more qualified to advise lawyers as to which business entity to select.
Entity Types
- Sole Proprietorship– Or self employed
- PLLC– Single Member – Taxed as sole proprietorship if no election is made, or with elections can be taxed as S Corporation or C Corporation.
- PLLC– Multi Member – Tax as partnership if no elections are made, or with election can be taxed as S Corp or C Corp.
- Professional Service Corporation – Such as C Corporation (if no elections are made), or S Corp (if elections are made).
- Partnership – Each partner treated as self-employed
- Shared Expense Arrangements – Sharing expenses versus sharing profit
Common Tax Deductible Expenses Available To Lawyers
Entertainment Expenses
- Substantiation under IRC Sec. 274
Travel Expenses
- Must comply with substantiation requirements of IRC Sec. 274
Books, Periodicals, and Software
- Cost of books and subscription services with useful life of more than one year is depreciable over 5 years.
- Software is not depreciable property subject to bonus depreciation of section 179 depreciation. Software is to be amortized over 3 years straight-line.
- Books, subscription services, and software purchased on annual basis having useful life of one year of less are currently deductible.
Bonus Depreciation and Section 179 Depreciation
- The bonus depreciation amount for qualifying business assets purchased after December 31, 2011 has returned to 50%.
- Bonus Depreciation Qualifying Property: The bonus deprecation allowance is only available for new property (original use must being with the taxpayer) which is depreciable under MACRS and has a recovery period of 20 years of less.
- Section 179 depreciation has a $125,000 dollar limit and $500,000 investment limit for tax years beginning in 2012.
Other considerations for lawyers include:
- Which is the best method of accounting: Cash versus Accrual?
- What are the tax implications of a specific retainer, an annual retainer?
And, it’s likely that you have your own specific question. Call us at 1-425-483-6600 or e-mail us at info@huddlestontax.com and we’ll do our best to give you a straight forward answer.
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