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Yes, we provide complimentary initial consultations of 15-20 minutes to better understand your requirements. These sessions will not cover any particular tax advice, and they are just like an informal introduction meeting, where you can get to know us and learn about our firm and expertise.
Yes, our team is very familiar with both the U.S. and Canadian tax regulations to the detailed level, which makes it very convenient for clients who have cross-border tax needs, such as U.S. expats living in Canada or Canadians holding their investments in the United States.
Yes, definitely. To better serve clients with cross-border tax issues, such as American expatriates living in Canada or Canadian investors in the U.S., our team is well-versed in the tax laws of both countries.
We choose to be transparent about our charges and operate a hybrid charging system. For tax preparation, bookkeeping, and year-end accounting work, we usually charge flat or fixed fees. For Audit representation, tax advice or planning, or any non-recurring work, we typically will charge by the hour. Please check out our pricing at www.accountingtoronto.ca/pricing-and-plan
Our fees depend on the type and complexity of the work needed. We have three main ways of charging:
Fixed-Fee: A certain amount for specified, regular services (e.g., monthly bookkeeping, annual tax filing). It makes the budget more certain.
Value-Based: A fee decided by the value and impact of the advice given, primarily used for complicated advisory projects. (large refund recovery projects, grant applications)
Hourly: This is for one-off consulting sessions or projects where the full scope is still unknown.
Usually, we require 50% of the total fee in advance as a retainer, and we will request the remaining 50% before the tax filing process. This way, we can spend more time delivering value to our clients and less time chasing debts; in fact, it enables us to keep our fees more competitive than other firms.
To begin with, as CPA’s, we are bound by a strict code of conduct which, among other things, entails ethics and data privacy. Any compromise on this will violate our obligations to you as a client. We have a secure client portal through which clients can upload their information directly. You may reach out to us, and we will be happy to send you an invite to this secure portal. Besides that, we also allow our clients to share their information with us via Google Drive or Dropbox if they are more comfortable with these methods, since these platforms are encrypted and secure. As CPAs, we must adhere to stringent ethical and professional standards with respect to client confidentiality. 5 Thus, we use:
Secure Portals: These password-protected, encrypted client portals enable the secure exchange of sensitive documents.
Cloud Security: Our cloud-based software follows top-notch security protocols that are on par with the rest of the industry.
Physical Security: Locking and secure locations are used the store client files.
Most of the time, our accountants are working remotely, and we aim to keep our overhead at the firm as low as possible. This allows us to pass the savings on to you, and our charges are less than what you can expect to pay at other firms. There are a few instances when we might need clients to meet us at our satellite office. In these cases, we will notify you of the details before the meeting so you can be ready to meet with us.
Generally, we want to gather as much background information as possible to determine whether to accept or reject a client.
We sent a new client questionnaire for you to complete and send back to us. We will usually request copies of previous years’ tax returns, if relevant, to give us an idea of what tax issues we may encounter during the preparation process. In case you are engaging us for the bookkeeping service, we will request access to your accounting records and/or system. We shall also request recent bank statements to calculate the number of transactions.
Clients who do not want to share such information with us during this process are unlikely to receive an accurate fee estimate, and the fee is likely to change mid-project if more work is discovered than initially thought. Thus, providing us with more supporting documents before getting an estimate of your payment will result in the more accurate fee estimate as compared to the final actual fee.
We carry liability insurance at a limit of $1,000,000 per year in both the US and Canada. Therefore, if our company is liable for any mistakes or negligence and consequently, you incur losses, our insurance policy would probably cover this.
What sets us apart from the competition is our thorough knowledge of the tax laws in the U.S. and Canada. This knowledge enables us to offer one-stop solutions for cross-border taxation. Our primary focus is on addressing the needs of expats, multinational companies, high-net-worth individuals, and international clients, for whom a regular tax practitioner might not be enough.
Our clients are spread throughout the United States, and we are mainly focused on those from the State of Florida. Since we are experts in cross-border and expat taxation, we also help U.S. Citizens and Canadian residents, as well as those with interests in Canada.
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If you have any questions about these FAQs, you can contact us:
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- Email: admin@sdgaccountant.com
- Phone: (786) 706-5905