Tax Preparation and Planning for Individuals and Businesses
We provide enrolled agent tax preparation and planning for individuals, small business owners, and retirees, with the same credentialed professional managing your return and available to represent you if that return is ever reviewed by the IRS.
The Difference Between Filing Your Taxes and Managing Them
Tax preparation is a compliance function. It accounts for what happened during the year, satisfies your filing obligations, and closes the books on a period that's already passed. Done well, it's accurate, thorough, and on time. Done without any forward-looking work attached to it, it leaves a meaningful question unanswered: could your tax position next year look different if you made different decisions this year?
Proactive tax planning addresses that question directly. It looks at your financial picture across the full year, not just at filing time, and identifies where tax planning strategies can reduce your liability before it's locked in. Entity structure, retirement contribution timing, deduction planning, and income management are all levers that only work when they're pulled before the year closes. A return filed without a strategy behind it is compliance. A return filed as the end point of a year of planning is a different outcome entirely.
Related Services
The Continuity Advantage of Working With an Enrolled Agent
Every return we prepare is filed by an Enrolled Agent with unlimited IRS representation rights. That means the professional who knows your return, who made the decisions, understands the positions, and prepared the documentation, is also the person who can represent you before the IRS if questions ever arise.
Most tax filing services stop at the return. Enrolled agent tax prep carries a layer of continuity that extends past the filing date. If the IRS sends a notice, requests documentation, or opens an audit, representation doesn't require bringing someone new up to speed on your situation. The person who filed the return is already prepared to defend it.
Built to Work Alongside Your Existing Financial Team
Many of our clients come through referrals from financial advisors, retirement planners, and attorneys who need a tax professional who can coordinate across the full financial picture. If your advisor is managing your investments and nobody is translating the tax implications of those decisions into your filing strategy, that's a gap with real consequences.
We work alongside your existing advisors rather than separately from them. Joelle joins the team as the tax professional, coordinates where it's useful, and keeps the filing and planning work consistent with whatever strategy your broader team has in place. Virtual tax preparation and planning through our TaxDome portal means this coordination works whether you're local to Wilmington, NC or working with us from anywhere across North Carolina or the country.
One Enrolled Agent Covering Returns, Planning, and Specialized Filings
Tax Preparation and Planning Built Around Your Business
Small business tax returns involve more variables than individual returns, and the planning opportunities are proportionally larger. We handle small business tax returns for closely held businesses and their owners, with preparation and planning that account for entity structure, owner compensation, retirement contributions, and the year-round decisions that shape the filing. A return is the output. The work starts well before that.
Retirement Tax Planning
The tax picture changes significantly in retirement. Distributions, Social Security income, required minimum distributions, and investment income all interact in ways that reward planning and penalize surprise. We work with retirees and pre-retirees to map the tax implications of the income transition ahead, often in coordination with their financial advisor or retirement planner.
Estate and Trust Returns
Estate and trust tax preparation operates under a different set of rules than individual or business returns, and errors carry consequences that extend to beneficiaries. We prepare estate and trust returns with the attention to complexity these filings require, and we're available to coordinate with the estate's attorney or financial advisor throughout the process.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Contact our team for an introductory meeting and we'll help you get to the right place!
What does an enrolled agent do for tax preparation and planning?
An enrolled agent prepares and files individual and business tax returns with the same federal authorization that covers IRS representation. For preparation, that means your return is handled by a practitioner with a comprehensive view of tax law and the authority to stand behind it if the IRS follows up. For planning, an enrolled agent brings a working knowledge of IRS procedures and how filing positions hold up under scrutiny, which shapes the advice given before the return is ever filed.
How is tax planning different from tax preparation?
Tax preparation accounts for decisions already made. Tax planning influences the decisions before they're made. Planning conversations happen throughout the year and focus on managing taxable income, timing deductions, structuring retirement contributions, and evaluating entity choices. By the time a return is being prepared, most of the tax planning opportunities for that year have already closed. The two services work best when they're connected rather than treated as separate annual events.
What should small business owners look for in tax preparation and planning?
Small business owners benefit most from a tax professional who understands both the compliance requirements and the planning opportunities that come with business ownership. That means someone who can handle the return accurately, advise on entity structure and owner compensation, coordinate with other advisors on the financial team, and be available year-round rather than only at filing time. The EA credential adds one additional layer: the same professional who files the return can represent the business if it's ever audited.
Thomas Tax Solutions is a Wilmington, NC tax professional practice providing enrolled agent tax preparation and planning for individuals, small business owners, and retirees. Joelle Thomas, Enrolled Agent, is an active member of the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers, the National Association of Enrolled Agents, and the National Association of Tax Professionals, and is currently pursuing the Certified Tax Resolution Specialist designation. Learn more about our credentials and approach on our About page.